PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania Center for Community Partnerships has received an honorable mention at the 2004 third annual Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Awards.

The awards highlight the power and potential of partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions as a strategy for improving health.

The Center was recognized for helping create university-assisted community schools that function as centers of education, services, engagement and activity for students, their parents and other West Philadelphia community members.

Since its founding in 1992, the Center has developed significant service-learning programs that engage young people in creative work designed to advance skills and abilities through service to their school, families and community.

Penn students and faculty are also engaged in service learning that requires the development and application of knowledge to solve problems as well as active and serious reflection on the service experience and its impacts.

The Center for Community Partnerships is Penn's primary vehicle for bringing to bear the broad range of human knowledge needed to solve the complex, comprehensive and interconnected problems of the American city so that West Philadelphia, Philadelphia, the University itself and society benefit.