Highlights from the Philadelphia Center’s Participatory Visioning Retreat

More than 45 individuals, including social movement leaders and organizers, community partners, government officials, and Penn State faculty and researchers gathered with the goal of sharing insights about their communities and ideas to help share the future of the Center’s collective vision.

Nothing about Us without Us: Introduction to Participatory Action Research

The phrase “nothing about us without us” is at the very core of the Penn State Center Philadelphia’s mission and programs. Everything we do is rooted in community engagement and democratic participation — connecting with Philadelphia communities and leaders to support them in envisioning and implementing processes for change.

Penn State Center Philadelphia appoints director to help address social issues

PHILADELPHIA — The Penn State Center Philadelphia has announced the appointment of Kristen Goessling as director of participatory action research (PAR). She is already a well-known change-maker in the areas of food justice and participatory field research and is the founder and principal investigator for the Philadelphia Participatory Research Collective.

Participatory research in Philadelphia looking at foundation of public schools

PHILADELPHIA — Many people want change in their public schools. In Philadelphia, parents and families are seeking a ground-up approach to their child’s education; one where changes are made in response to an individual child’s needs, rather than a top-down approach that could leave them out of the decision-making process.

Penn State Center Philadelphia collaboration is providing meals during COVID-19

PHILADELPHIA — Food insecurity for many people was not created by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the crisis is exposing it as a global issue and in many cases, making it worse. In Philadelphia, the People’s Kitchen is a community-driven program that was co-created during the COVID-19 pandemic as a response to food insecurity, unemployment, immigration and land use and development. The Penn State Center Philadelphia, a service of Penn State Outreach, is a collaborator on the project along with the Food Decisions Research Lab in the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State, 215 People’s Alliance and South Philly Barbacoa.

Student’s experience inspires fight for undocumented immigrants

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Maura Chadwick is a law student focusing on the rights of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Her future career aspirations were ignited while enrolled as an undergraduate student earning her bachelor of arts in law and society from the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State through Penn State World Campus, and as a participant in a student engagement placement program through the Penn State Center Philadelphia.