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Community Health Engagement: Past Events

Past Programs & Fairs

In partnership with Penn Medicine Government and Community Relations and the University of Pennsylvania Office of Government & Community Affairs, we provided health literacy materials at various health fairs and community events prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through various partnerships and platforms, we also provide wellness and health literacy-related opportunities at Penn and beyond including professional organizations and conferences. The Community Health Engagement Team welcomes opportunities to share successes and challenges with fellow librarians and public health workers beyond Penn via phone/video calls, at conferences, in-person meetings, etc.

In the City of Philadelphia

Juneteenth Wellness Summit

In June 2023, Aman recruited the Penn Dental Medicine Community Oral Health Division to volunteer at the first ever Juneteenth Wellness Summit held at Saunders Parks and hosted by Wharton and Penn Medicine. The Penn Libraries had a table for bookmark crafts and a children's book giveaway.

West Philadelphia Women's Day 2020

On Saturday February 15, Richard James and Aman Kaur volunteered at Penn Nursing's 2nd Annual West Philadelphia Women's Day. In the months leading up to the event, Aman solicited feedback from community members, created a menopause library guide, and select raffle prizes.

Sayre Health Center

In July 2019, Aman helped brainstorm ways to support the expansion of Sayre Health Center's literacy program for elementary school-age patients.

Penn Presbyterian Medical Center's Community Health Fair @ Saunders Park

On Saturday June 8, 2019, Community Health & Engineering Librarian, Aman Kaur, and a Master of Public Health Student, Kiara Benson, engaged about 85 West Philadelphians in activities that incorporated health information.

Walk With a Future Doc

Aman will continue to walk with medical students and neighbors in Kingsessing in Summer 2019.

As of July 27, the flyer does not reflect the correct start time. Due to the ongoing excessive summer heat this summer, Walk With a Future Doc organizers and participants have decided to change the start time of the walks to 9am.

Poster for the Neighborhood Weekend Walks

Temple University College of Education Upward Bound Math & Science

On April 13th, 2019, Aman Kaur was a judge at a science fair at Temple University geared towards high school students participating in Upward Bound Math & Science.  Aman utilized her interdisciplinary background to give out a special award called "Science in My Life", which goes to the student who had the most personal connection to their science experiment or project.

Picture of Aman Kaur

#SayreCares Community Health Fair at Sayre High School

Picture from Sayre Cares Community Health Fair

On April 6th, 2019, Penn Medicine and Penn Libraries shared a table to share health information, give out prizes, and do blood pressure screenings. Aman Kaur, the Community Health & Engineering Librarian, and Kiara Benson, the Master of Public Health student who is doing field hours under Aman's supervision, staffed the Penn Libraries' portion of the table and talked to 86 people about MedlinePlus Magazine and other resources.

West Philadelphia Women's Day

The Community Health & Engineering Librarian and the Undergraduate Nursing Liaison Librarian assisted the School of Nursing in planning its first ever West Philadelphia Women's Day, a day-long health conference for women and girls, on Saturday January 26th, 2019 at West Philadelphia High School.Poster from West Philadelphia Women's Day 2019

Free Narcan Giveaway Day at the Free Library of Philadelphia

On December 13th, 2018 Richard James, the Nursing & Bioethics Librarian, attended the Free Narcan Giveaway Day at the Blackwell Regional Library of West Philadelphia, the largest West Philadelphia branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Poster from the Naloxone Giveaway Day

Walk With a Future Doc

Since late July, the Community Health and Engineering Librarian provided consumer health information to Walk With a Future Doc organizers and participants. Walk With a Future Doc is a health sciences student-run initiative sponsored by the Center for Public Health Initiatives.

Poster for the schedule for "Walks With a Future Doc"

#HealthLiteracyMonth Events

In honor of #HealthLiteracyMonth, the Community Health & Engineering Librarian represented the Penn Libraries at the Penn Medicine Baby Shower, an annual SIDS Awareness Month event, on October 6th. Attendees stopped by the Penn Libraries table to learn about MedlinePlus, KidsHealth, and other credible health information sources.Picture of the Penn Libraries Table for the Health Literacy Month Event

 

On Friday October 12th, the Community Health & Engineering Librarian (Aman Kaur) and the 2018 - 2020 Eugene Garfield Resident in Science Librarianship (Kathleen Fox) represented the University of Pennsylvania at the Minorities in Health Symposium at Esperanza College at Eastern University. During the symposium, Aman and Kathleen talked to 145 students, educators, and clinicians.

Picture of the Penn Medicine Table for the Minorities in Health Symposium

Nexus Maximus @ Jefferson University East Falls Campus

Nexus Maximus is a free public event, in which interdisciplinary teams are tasked to brainstorm solutions to local health-related concerns. On Saturday September 21st, the Community Health & Engineering Librarian helped  Nexus Maximus participants research community organizations by neighborhood and zip code. 

Picture of Aman Kaur dressed as a Roman soldier for the Nexus Maximus public event

Penn Presbyterian Medical Center's Community Health Fair @ Saunders Park

On June 9, 2018, Community Health & Engineering Librarian, Aman Kaur, and Holman Biotech Commons Intern, Kristen Matteucci, talked to West Philadelphians about health information resources and handed out brochures on various health topics at Penn Presbyterian's Community Health Fair in Saunders Park.

Picture of the Penn Libraries table at the Penn Presbyterian's Community Health Fair

"Be a Pennovator" @  Pennovation Center

On April 22nd, 2018, health sciences librarians provided about 75 children, parents, and engineers with a list of children's books about engineering and computer science at the "Be a Pennovator" event, which is a part of the Philadelphia Science Festival.

Picture of the Penn Libraries table at the "Be a Pennovator" event

Health Fair @ Sayre High School

On April 14th, 2018, Aman talked to 103 people about the "Evaluating Health Websites & Apps" workshops, health literacy, and MedlinePlus.

Picture of Aman Kaur at the Health Fair at Sayre High School

Career Readiness @  Sayre High School

On March 19, 2018, Community Health & Engineering Librarian, Aman Kaur, provided career preparation presentations to Sayre High School students. In the presentation, she shared how her AmeriCorps year in a public library helped her become an academic science librarian at Penn.

Spark Mentor Program @ Lea Elementary School

In Spring 2018, Aman mentored a 7th grade student from Lea Elementary School through the Spark Mentor Program. Aman introduced this student to the world of libraries and information technologies, including multimedia production and virtual reality. Aman also taught her mentee how to do research about the Statue of Liberty and create a Smore digital flyer.

 

Evaluating Health Websites & Apps Workshops at Free Library of Philadelphia Blanche Nixon Cobbs Creek Branch

Richard James and Aman Kaur co-facilitated "Evaluating Health Websites & Apps" workshops at the Blanche Nixon Cobbs Creek Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

 

Evaluating Health Websites and Apps by Amanpreet Kaur

For the Penn Community

Mindful Movement at the Leon Levy Library of Dental Medicine

In collaboration with the Penn Dental Medicine Ergonomics Club, Marian Reiff from Student Health & Counseling walked dental students through stretches in the Collaborative Classroom in November.

Mindful Movement flyer

Virtual Wellness Workshop: Meditate with Manuel

8 people registered for a virtual silent meditation led by Manuel de la Cruz Gutierrez, the Director of Data & Innovation Services at the Holman Biotech Commons.

Poster for the Virtual Wellness Workshop

Together in Gather.Town with Penn Nursing

On Monday January 25th, 2021, 20 students and university staff members attended "Together in Gather.Town", which was held in the Penn Libraries Gather.Town, a virtual community site with various types of meeting, networking, group study, and wellness spaces. During the event, attendees got a tour of Gather.Town and participated in team-based Kahoot trivia challenge. This event was co-sponsored by Penn Nursing.

Poster for the Penn Libraries "Together in Gather.Town"

Circle Tea

On November 17, 2020, Aman Kaur co-facilitated a Circle Tea for Penn employees with Pablo Cerdera, the Director of Restorative Practices at Penn (RP@P). There were 6 Penn staff members from various departments discussing how they find hope and community during the pandemic.

New Student Orientation Preceptorial: Wellness Wednesday Virtual Mindfulness Workshop

Penn Libraries, Campus Health, and New Student Orientation & Academic Initiatives (NSOAI) co-hosted a virtual introduction to meditation on August 26th as a New Student Orientation Preceptorial, open to all Penn students and employees. 128 students, staff, and faculty participated in the live workshop. The workshop was recorded and is available below and on the NSOAI and Penn Libraries websites. Due to the high interested in this event, Penn Libraries, Campus Health, and NSOAI will host additional virtual guided mindful meditation workshops throughout the semester.

Poster for the #Wellness Wednesday Virtual Mindfulness Workshop

Spring 2020 Virtual Mindfulness Workshop Series

The Spring 2020 WellnessWednesday Workshop Series was originally planned to include yoga, meditation, and positive affirmations workshops in the Holman Biotech Commons Relaxation Room, in partnership with Campus Health, Penn Nursing, and Counseling And Psychological Services. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the yoga and positive affirmation workshops have been postponed to Fall 2020. Campus Health, Penn Nursing, and Penn Libraries held its first ever #WellnessWednesday workshop on April 22nd in honor of Earth Day. 11 students, staff, and faculty participated in a a virtual guided meditation. Due to the positive feedback from this event, Campus Health, Penn Nursing, and Penn Libraries hosted another virtual guided mindfulness and meditation workshops during finals week, which also had 11 attendees including students, employees, and loved ones.

Poster for the #Wellness Wednesday Workshop, Earth Day Meditation event

Poster for the #Wellness Wednesday Finals Week Meditation event

Librarians' Assembly Programs in the Relaxation Room

In Fall 2019, Librarians' Assembly offered meditation and yoga workshops on select Monday mornings and Friday afternoons in the Relaxation Room.

#HealthLiteracyMonth #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

In honor of #HealthLiteracyMonth and Open Access Week, the Holman Biotech Commons hosted a #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Tuesday Oct 22nd, 2019. 6 attendees learned how to edit health-related Wikipedia pages. #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thons are held across the country via an initiative from the National Library of Medicine.

Poster for the #HealthLiteracyMonth #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Event

University of Pennsylvania Health Literacy Month Event

Walking Tour of Wellness Spaces

In October 2019, Aman led a wellness walk from the Pan Asian American Community House to the former Biomedical Library to the Bio-Pond and back.

2019 Health Literacy Month Kickoff

In partnership with the Penn Medicine Patient Education Committee, on the evening of October 1st, Penn Libraries held its Health Literacy Month Kickoff in the Common Press, the letterpress and printing press studio located on the ground floor of the Fisher Fine Arts Library. During the Kickoff, Aman Kaur, Community Health & Engineering Librarian, briefly presented about "Evaluating Health Websites & Apps." Mary Tasillo, the Common Press, presented about the history of poster advocacy and printing presses including examples of historical posters created by organizations interested in public health and environmental issues. Mary, then, demonstrated how to use the letter presses, and attendees were able to create their own posters about evaluating health websites and apps.

#WellnessWednesday Workshops in the Holman Biotech Commons

  • On Wednesday March 27th, 2019 at 12pm, Rob Smith, a health educator at Campus Health, led a Sleep Trivia workshop, in which attendees answered questions about sleep in a quizzo format and competed for prizes in the Holman Biotech Commons Conference Room. 11 people registered for this workshop.

  • On Wednesday April 3rd, 2019 at 12pm, Sandi Herman, M.S., a Health and Wellness Educator at Campus Health and Student Health Service, guided attendees through a series of mindfulness and meditation techniques for stress reduction in the Holman Biotech Commons Relaxation Room. 19 people registered for this workshop.

  • On May 1st at 2:30pm and September 4th at 1pm, Sandi held additional mindfulness workshops in the Holman Biotech Commons Relaxation Room.

Poster for the #Wellness Wednesday Workshops in the Holman Biotech Commons

Poster for the #Wellness Wednesday Workshops in the Holman Biotech Commons

Poster for the #Wellness Wednesday Workshops in the Holman Biotech Commons

Relaxation Room Grand Opening

On December 3rd, 2018, the Holman Biotech Commons held a grand opening event for the Relaxation Room. About 70 people registered and/or attended this event, including staff from Penn Medicine Radiation Oncology and BlueDesign who were doing a virtual reality relaxation demo.

 

Wellness Interest Group

In December 2018, Aman Kaur launched the Penn Libraries Wellness Interest Group, which an informal  group comprised of library staff interested in exploring wellness topics and self-care activities. This was a year-long pilot, but the resources will still be available on a Confluence page for staff to access.

Campus Conversation

On November 5th, 2018 in Houston Hall, the Community Health & Engineering Librarian took notes as student and faculty discussed how to preserve their wellness during challenging times at the Campus Conversation titled "Hate and its Aftermath."

Poster for the "Hate and its Aftermath" event

#HealthLiteracyMonth Events

In honor of #HealthLiteracyMonth, the Community Health & Engineering Librarian also organized two in-person events in the Holman Biotech Commons in partnership with the Director of Science Libraries. 59 people registered for Dr. Paul Offit's book talk, which also marked the inaugural presentation of a scholarly talk at the Holman Biotech Commons. 30 people registered for the "Evaluating Health Websites & Apps" workshop.

Farm Share Delivery Location

In the 2017 - 2018 academic year, the Holman Biotech Commons served as the location for a Farm Share Delivery for participants in a study conducted by the Center for Public Health Initiatives.

Diversi-tea @ Penn Libraries

The Group On Library Diversity hosts a Diversi-teas series, in which campus resource centers, student organizations, and faculty members talk about issues as well as services and initiatives that address these issues. At Diversi-teas, tea and cookies are provided for speakers and attendees. On April 25th, 2017, Aman Kaur presented about health literacy and community health in a Diversi-tea. At the time of this presentation, Aman was the 2015 - 2017 Eugene Garfield Resident in Science Librarianship. For more information, view the presentation slides. You're welcome to take the Kahoot quiz used in this presentation, which contains data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Report.

Beyond Penn and Philly

Building Your Health Literacy Toolbox

The Ohio State University College of Nursing invited Aman to be a pre-conference keynote speaker on October 19th, 2024. Aman provided a health literacy training for community health workers from across the state of Ohio.

Health Literacy Study Club

In collaboration with Dr. Gluch from the Community Oral Health Division of Penn Dental Medicine, the Leon Levy Library of Dental Medicine hosted the first meeting of the Health Literacy Study Club in February 2023, a journal club that is open to everyone who is interested in reading and discussing foundational and emerging research and best practices about health literacy, patient education, and/or oral health.

In February 2023, we read and discussed the following articles:

  1. Lee, J.Y., Divaris, K., Baker, A.D., Rozier, R.G., Lee, S.-Y.D. and Vann Jr, W.F. (2011), Oral health literacy levels among a low-income WIC population. Journal of Public Health Dentistry, 71: 152-160. https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1111/j.1752-7325.2011.00244.x
  2. Kılınç. (2022). Is the information about orthodontics on Youtube and TikTok reliable for the oral health of the public? A cross sectional comparative study. Journal of Stomatology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery., 123(5), e349–e354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jormas.2022.04.009

Health Literacy Study Club flyer

"We Need Books" Library in Athens, Greece

In the 2022 - 2023 academic year, I helped brainstormed community health-related program ideas for the "We Need Books" Library, which serves the ever-growing multilingual and multicultural immigrant and refugee communities in Athens, Greece. In Summer 2023, the Penn SNF Paideia Program staff and fellows met the "We Need Books" Library staff in Athens during an international conference.

What is Oral Health Literacy?

During Health Literacy Month in October 2022, the Leon Levy Library of Dental Medicine solicited tweets and Instagram posts, stories, and reels answering the question: "What is oral health literacy?"

What is oral health literacy?

2022 Virtual Health Literacy Month #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

 Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Flyer

2022 Virtual Health Literacy Month Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

9 people registered for the the Virtual Health Literacy Month #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Monday October 3rd, 2022 from 12pm to 1pm Eastern. The training slides are also available asynchronously.

Invited Presentation at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan

On April 21st at 1:10am Eastern, Aman virtually presented a two-hour workshop titled "Evaluating Health Websites, Apps, and News" to about 30 students in an information literacy course geared towards students interested in health-related careers.

Spring 2022 Virtual Grant Funder Research-a-thon

14 people registered to learn how to use their online research skills to identify prospective funding resources for the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia, a local non-profit organization that provides a multitude of services for Philadelphians impacted by violence.

Research-a-thon Flyer

 

Fall 2021 Health Literacy Month #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

10 people registered to learn how to edit health-related pages on Wikipedia. This event was co-sponsored by the Penn Medicine Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Patient & Family Education Committee.

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon flyer

Join the 2021 Virtual Health Literacy Month Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Spring 2021 #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

The Holman Biotech Commons promoted the National Network of the Library of Medicine's (NNLM) #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on March 31st. Participants are able to participate synchronously or asynchronously with folks from across the world. The Daily Pennsylvanian published an article about this virtual volunteering opportunity.

Because quality information helps you make better health decisions.

CiteNLM Virtual Edit-a-thon

2020 Health Literacy Month #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

The Holman Biotech Commons promoted the National Network of the Library of Medicine's (NNLM) #HealthLiteracyMonth #citeNLM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. Participants were able to participate synchronously or asynchronously with folks from across the world. Due to the NNLM's commitment in hosting two Wikipedia Edit-a-thons per year, we hope to continue promoting this activity.

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon flyers

COVID-19 Research Project with African American Resource Center

From April 2020 to June 2020, Aman Kaur performed a real time interdisciplinary literature search for news articles, scholarly articles, and data sets for the African American Resource Center's pending publication on the history of medical racism and the COVID-19 pandemic's disproportionate impact on the Black/African American community.

#HealthLiteracyMonth

Events

In honor of #HealthLiteracyMonth, the Community Health & Engineering Librarian co-presented a webinar with Erin Seger from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Mid-Atlantic Region Office and the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. 45 registered for the live webinar. The webinar will be available to 3,500 AAFCS members to watch on demand.

Health Literacy Month flyer about the workshop

On October 22nd, 2018, the Community Health and Engineering Librarian presented about the Holman Biotech Commons's Community Health Outreach initiatives at the 10th Health Literacy Annual Research Conference (HARC X) hosted by Boston University in Bethseda, Maryland.

#CritLib Twitter Chat about #HealthLiteracy

#CritLib is a biweekly Twitter chat for librarians interested in the intersection of critical pedagogy and social justice. Aman Kaur, the Community Health & Engineering Librarian guest-moderated a #critlib Twitter chat on health literacy on Tuesday September 4th at 9pm Eastern Time.

Former Initiatives

Penn STEM Alliance

In November 2018, the Holman Biotech Commons became the primary meeting location for the Penn STEM Alliance (PSTEMA), a university-wide group coordinated by the SAS Science Outreach Initiative. Aman and Lexi Voss (Visualizationist) are PSTEMA members. Aman also sat on the PSTEMA Outreach Library Task Force. Aman became the moderator of the PSTEMA email list in August 2021. As of Fall 2022, PSTEMA email moderation returned to the SASSOI.

Associate Fellowship @ the Center for Public Health

In January 2019, the Center for Public Health (CPH) appointed Aman to the role of Associate Fellow, which has strengthened the partnership between CPH and Penn Libraries. Aman was in this role until Spring 2023, when she enrolled in the Master of Public Health program.

Special Libraries Association Philadelphia Chapter

From 2017 to 2020, the Community Health Engagement Team provided STEM-related materials to the Penn Libraries Community Engagement team, the department that partners with the West Philadelphia Alliance for Children to support 20 school libraries at public elementary and high schools in the City of Philadelphia. The Special Libraries Association Philadelphia Chapter's book drive held a virtual book drive: bit.ly/schoollibsbookdrive.

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