Cultivating Community and Advancing Social Good
An intrinsic commitment to nondiscrimination; diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives; social well-being and social good.
At the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), we’re preparing the next generation of leaders to work for social good, innovation, and impact.
Throughout its history, SP2 has dedicated itself to understanding and embracing differences. Today, our historic commitment to community engagement, nondiscrimination, and social good intersects with a deep commitment to supporting marginalized individuals, families, and communities.
SP2 strives to be a space of principled community, valuing differences of opinion, background, and experience and working to foster an institutional environment where we all think openly, honestly, reflectively, and deeply about questions and ideas that both unite and divide us. The topics that we grapple with every day — from ethical AI and climate change to homelessness and poverty, responsible philanthropy to economic mobility, aging and child welfare — are some of the biggest facing society. They can sometimes seem intractable, but we believe that addressing them through a truly thoughtful and collaborative lens empowers us to work together to reimagine and rebuild our social world.
Our students join us from around the world, bringing with them a host of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences, and embodying SP2’s commitment to using their knowledge and skills to build community and to advance social good. During their time here they engage in innovative research and meaningful practicum work, striving every day to make lasting change and a meaningful impact in Philadelphia and beyond.
A central imperative for social work, policy, and practice is the fundamental need to think conscientiously about the individuals, groups, and communities these disciplines will affect most. We are resolute in our intention to educate students of social policy and practice to embrace difference and build community in all its dimensions, and to create cutting-edge scholarship that enables our field to more effectively promote social good.
“One Book, One SP2” Program
Launched in 2019, One Book, One SP2 is a school-wide reading initiative designed to strengthen community and foster dialogue among students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The featured book is selected through a community-wide survey, and the program includes opportunities for engagement throughout the academic year, including small-group discussions at the start of the fall semester.
- 2026: Technology for Good: How Nonprofit Leaders Are Using Software and Data to Solve Our Most Pressing Social Problems by Jim Fruchterman
- 2025: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt
- 2024: Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing, Benjamin Todd Jealous
- 2023: Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong
- 2022: The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, Nikole Hannah-Jones
- 2021: Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson
- 2020: Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions, Valeria Luiselli and There There, Tommy Orange
- 2019: Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements, Charlene Carruthers
Program Curriculums
Our focus on social good demands a multifaceted approach to recognizing and celebrating the many identities, experiences, histories, and aspirations that animate our local and global community. This commitment permeates all six of our rigorous degree programs (MSW, MSSP, NPL, PhD, DSW, and DNPA), helping bind these programs to SP2’s overarching mission: producing the best social service providers, policymakers, and nonprofit leaders in the world.
