Penn Community Collaboratory for Co-Creation (Penn4C), an initiative led jointly by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) and the School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering), recently hosted its Annual Awardee Celebration, highlighting innovative projects addressing health care needs and social justice for marginalized and low-resource communities. The event recognized the achievements of researchers, faculty, students, and community advocates committed to co-creating technological solutions that challenge structural inequalities.
Celebrating Collaboration and Innovation: Penn4C’s 2nd Annual Grantee Celebration
On November 19, 2024, the Penn Community Collaboratory for Co-Creation (Penn4C) hosted its second awardee celebration. The event recognized the collaborative achievements of Penn Nursing and Penn Engineering faculty alongside their exceptional community partners, celebrating the power of co-creation to tackle pressing societal challenges.
The evening showcased the accomplishments of pilot grantees and introduced the three newly funded 2024 projects. These initiatives highlighted impactful work, including addressing loneliness among homebound adults, exploring digital determinants of health, and enhancing exercise accessibility for older adults with disabilities. The selection of these projects underscores Penn4C’s dedication to fostering innovative, community-centered solutions that create meaningful change.
Key themes of the event included combating health disparities, promoting social justice, and advancing technology co-designed with marginalized communities. Through lively discussions and networking opportunities, attendees deepened their commitment to equitable partnerships and learned from each other’s experiences.
With active participation from faculty, students, and local organizations, the celebration exemplified Penn4C’s mission to drive innovation and equity. By bringing together diverse perspectives, the event inspired participants to envision transformative and lasting change across the lifespan.
Testing a novel, community-driven response to heat islands in Philadelphia
Researchers from three University of Pennsylvania schools collaborated with a Hunting Park nonprofit to design, build, and test a prototype of a cooling shelter to place at a bus stop.
July marked the 14th month in a row of record high global temperatures, and as the month ended, the National Weather Service said Philadelphia was on track for its third warmest summer since 1874. While 94° days are hardly pleasant for suburbanites, heat can be worse for residents in pockets of Center City, South Philadelphia, and North Philadelphia.
Spring 2024
Students Ling Xu and Ming Zou worked with the team at North 10 on their Shatter Sweep Device. The students demonstrated it to the North 10 Neighborhood Promise Program (NPP) team: Al, Donte, Rich, Marcus and Farreed, and Sara Jacoby and Devin Carroll. The team was impressed with the work the students did and had some excellent suggestions. There will be follow-up in the coming months to make modifications to the design so that it will fit the needs of the NPP team. As Devin said to the group this morning, “Until we could get out and demonstrate it with the team, and see it in action on site, they could not know how effective it would be.”
Dr Jacoby has hired a student research assistant that will be working through the summer dedicated to the project. The goals of this part of the partnership are to engage in field visits with the Land Care team to understand and then provide technical support in the implementation of a practical data collection system through which the team and North 10 can document the extent of litter removal and land care they undertake, and then establish the impact of their efforts on the local environment. A second goal will be to work with Dr. Jacoby to identify ways to connect these data to health and safety outcomes within the neighborhoods in which they work.
Spring 2024
Research teams have met weekly to share updates on their projects. Engineering students were busy with their bike designs. A visit was made by the team to Paul Robeson High School to get acquainted with some of the participants and to witness the building of a smoothie bike. Once the prototype is ready, it will be transferred to the School of Nursing. Dr. Down is working creating a description of this new ABCS opportunity for the Nursing 3750 course: 5-7 students will be needed to assist with the Smoothie Bike project that includes creating smoothie recipe demos and education to the high school students. The students will assist with the “health carnivals” that will occur at two schools during the fall semester. Rebel Ventures is looking to hire summer employees to work on the nutritional portion of the project through the summer.
D. Roberts, T. Kang, J. Stein “Sustainability in Engineering Graphics and Bicycle-Powered Blenders”, American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE) Annual Conference, Portland, OR, June 2024.
“Chilling on the 10 Spot”
The Heat Island team is busy working on their “Chilling on the 10 Spot” cooling station bus stop. The designs are complete, and construction will start in June. Plans are underway for the first week of August for the testing of the station in front of the Lenfest Center. Dr Jacoby is working with the team to develop health-related messaging and imagery on heat and health for display within the demonstration cooling station. The team is also working on developing materials for North 10 partners to use to elicit feedback on the cooling station and how residents and neighborhoods perceive the impact of heat on their health for intercept surveys for the August testing event.
Spring 2024
Initial activities included the Penn Team working with their community partner, PhillyThrive, to finalize recruitment logistics and creation of an interview guide. The team was able to pilot the interview with a Philly thrive member that suffers from asthma. They have since completed five interviews and has scheduled an additional eight. In the coming weeks they will be reviewing the initial interviews and will be performing member-checking activities. A great start for a great project!
Phase 1 Final Session and Celebration
Creative Resilient Youth (CRY), one of Penn4Cs initial awardees, had their Penn4C Digital Art & Healing Phase 1 Final Session and Celebration last week at the Asian Arts Initiative Space. The Digital Healing Project, one of the initial projects awarded by Penn4C, addresses the ongoing mental health challenges of BIPOC young individuals in the Philadelphia region. The Digital Healing project is unique in adopting design justice principles in the end-to-end co-design of mental health support to young people through digital creative arts. The transdisciplinary team along with community partners co-design and co-develop a digital platform that utilizes AI to analyze the emotional conditions of community members (users) and provide personalized art therapy experiences. Ultimately, community members will be able to create digital artwork, participate in guided art exercises, and share their work with others to receive real-time reflections based on their emotional responses.
In the initial phase CRY staff members Avani Alvarez and BIPOC Community Stakeholders discussed what the process of the development of the APP, defined what healing meant to them, and from there developed activities to meet the initial needs of the project. During the initial phase CRY members along with UPenn Faculty leads: SEAS, Sharath Chandra Guntuku; SON, Seul Ki Choi; SP2, Siva Mathiyazhagan and Penn Students Eileen Feng, SeBin Lee, and Manvi Kaul worked together to bring the ideas and goals of the CRY community to the Application. At the meeting Andrea Ngan confirmed with the group their progress to date. CRY stakeholders worked on their avatars. Afterward, there was great discussion among and between the Penn and the CRY members that were able to attend.
Siva Mathiyazhagan, Andrea Ngan, Avani Alvarez, Eileen Feng, Manvi Kaul, Sebin Lee Seul Ki Choi, Sharath Chandra Guntuku “Digital Healing: Co-Designing with Youth for Digital Creative Arts Space for Community Mental Wellbeing”, AHFE International Conference on Human Factors in Design, Engineering, and Computing, Honolulu, HI.
Penn4C Hosts Inaugural Awardee Celebration at Houston Hall
On Monday, February 26, 2024, the Community Collaboratory for Co-Creation (Penn4C) held a vibrant kickoff event at the historic Houston Hall, University of Pennsylvania. The event recognized the remarkable community partners who have collaborated with Penn Nursing and Penn Engineering faculty to co-create innovative solutions for community challenges and provided an opportunity for project teams to share details of their research.
The inaugural celebration provided a valuable networking opportunity, uniting community organizations and faculty researchers from both schools. Attendees enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and beverages while mingling and exchanging ideas.
Organizers emphasized Penn4C’s commitment to the role of community organizations, highlighting the goal of maintaining and deepening relationships and expanding outreach efforts while initiating another round of funding.
Penn4C expressed sincere gratitude to all attendees, noting that their active participation enriched the experience. The event not only recognized the awardees but also set the stage for future collaborations and knowledge sharing. Penn4C looks forward to exploring more potential partnership opportunities in the coming year.
Community members with ideas or challenges that require innovative solutions are encouraged to visit the Penn4C website at www.penn4c.org and submit their proposals via the “Submit an Idea” page.
The kickoff celebration marked an exciting beginning for Penn4C’s ongoing efforts to foster co-creation and collaboration within the community.