Ira Harkavy, the associate vice president and founding director of the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, will be recognized by the Philadelphia City Council on Thursday, May 14. 

A resolution introduced by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell honored Harkavy’s lifetime of accomplishments and the Netter Center’s dedication to community service, as well as their significant contributions to West Philadelphia. 

Since 1992, Harkavy has led the Netter Center with a focus on two main approaches that connect Penn with its neighbors in West Philadelphia: academically based community service courses and university-assisted community school partnerships. 

Academically based community service courses consist of service learning focused on impactful real world problem solving to meet areas of social need related to poverty, education and nutrition. 

There are 26 departments at Penn that offer more than 60 academically based community service courses to nearly 1,800 students each year. These courses vary across disciplines and include such subjects as Music in Urban Spaces, Writing Out Loud, Poverty and Inequality, Nutrition Throughout the Life Cycle, Urban Education and Community Physics Initiative. 

The Netter Center has also has established partnerships with five University-assisted community schools nearby, including the Henry C. Lea, Samuel B. Huey and Benjamin B. Comegys Elementary schools, along with the Sayre and West Philadelphia High schools, which in total serve about 3,000 children and their families. 

As Penn’s primary vehicle for organizing large-scale initiatives designed to solve complex social problems as they are manifested locally, the Netter Center works to integrate University-wide resources for mutually beneficial partnerships between the University and the community. 

The mission and goals of the Netter Center are in alignment with local engagement goals of impact and inclusion outlined in President Amy Gutmann’s Penn Compact 2020. 

Celebrating its 23rd anniversary, the Netter Center, which is housed in the Office of Government and Community Affairs, also develops and works with networks of higher education institutions that are committed to engagement with their own communities across the United States and around the world.