University of Oklahoma to expand community education with help from the Netter Center

If the Netter Center has its way, students at other schools may soon understand what an ABCS course means.

Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships is using a new gift from Barbara and Edward Netter to spread Penn's model of community education to other regions, beginning with the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa.

The Tulsa program, which will "adapt and replicate Penn's model," will operate in a five-state area, spanning across Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, Netter Center associate director Joann Weeks said.

Penn has given the University of Oklahoma a three-year award for the Southwest region through Tulsa's Center for Community Engagement, which will spread community service programs.

The grant consists of $50,000 per year for three years, which the University of Oklahoma must match with its own funds. The money will fund training workshops and conferences in community involvement in education and health for regional universities.

Weeks added that Netter Center officials also hope to learn from their new partner, which offers, among other initiatives, school-based health centers.

Penn is teaching the University of Oklahoma to pinpoint strategies to "bridge and strengthen bands of university resources and community to benefit schools and families," said Pamela Pittman, executive director at Tulsa's Center for Community Engagement.

In Tulsa, a service center had already existed, called Oklahoma University Center for Outreach, Research and Education. It was funded by a 2005 Federal U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant for a Community Outreach Partnership Center award.

Penn received a HUD COPC award in 1996.

Pittman met Weeks at a National Coalition for Community Schools conference, and they have "slowly grown in collaborations," Pittman said.

She added that they submitted a grant together for a four-university conference in November 2007 that also included representatives from the University of Denver and the University of New Mexico.

At the conference, they explored the option of a five-state training program supported by the University of Oklahoma.

Projects already implemented in Tulsa include a Neighborhood Kitchens Project, which focuses on "nourishing the whole person," Pittman explained.

Volunteers listen to the needs of families while providing meals in order to direct them to secondary resources.

Students from the nine colleges within the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa system already engage in community service in different ways.

For example, Pharmacy students educate community schools about asthma awareness and identification.

The Netter Center "has carved the path before us as far as community-assisted schools go," Pittman said.

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