7: Your Health, Our Responsibility: Unlocking the Potential of Collaborative University-Assisted Approaches to Improving Health and Wellness Through School-Based Programming

Youth and community health are complex; best achieved through multidisciplinary, place-based, and highly engaged approaches to transform social space and partnerships. For over 30 years, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania has been using a place-based, comprehensive approach to improve community health through University-Assisted Community Schools (UACS) in West Philadelphia. Through innovative comprehensive UACS partnerships, public school students, families, teachers, staff, and university and community members work collaboratively to tackle needs. At a time when economic and social disparities between neighborhoods had already been increasing, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated conditions and took a major toll on the emotional and mental wellness of our UACS youth, and the adults who work with them. This paper presents promising early evaluation findings regarding the implementation and impact of multiple UACS programs and activities all focused on social, emotional, and mental wellness. Included in this work is staff training/certification on providing mental health first aid, supports for treating secondary traumatic stress for staff, and programming specific to youth grief and loss, LGBTQIA+ students’ health, and open-forum discussions surrounding school and community violence with teens. The Netter Center recognizes the need for democratic and collaborative partnerships that incorporate inclusive and healing-centered practices into all aspects of programming, thereby convening spaces for UACS youth, program staff, Penn students, and school-based personnel to address the root causes of stress and trauma. Safe, nurturing, and empowering environments in schools are needed to improve collective efficacy, to reduce violence and increase well-being.