CAC 2016-2017 Impact Report · CAC Impact Chart 2011-2017 . 4 Events at the CAC Our Global Potluck...
Transcript of CAC 2016-2017 Impact Report · CAC Impact Chart 2011-2017 . 4 Events at the CAC Our Global Potluck...
2016-2017 in Review Page 2
CAC Impact Chart Page 3
Special Events Page 4
ONA Adult Programming Page 5
West Side Promise Neighborhood Page 6
Buffalo Beginnings Page 7
CAC Team Page 8
CAC 2016-2017 Impact Report
This year the CAC celebrated our fifth anniversary since opening
in 2011. In that time we have served 12,350 community students
and were supported by 3,364 Buffalo State service-learners and
volunteers. Each program has embodied the CAC mission of
creating reciprocal learning opportunities to promote cross-
cultural understanding and equity. A key component to
achieving the CAC mission is our collaborative approach to
partnerships. This year we saw significant deepening and
expansion of partnerships for our programs and special events.
Our fifth year has gone by quickly, with programming occurring
six days a week at the CAC and partner locations. Buffalo Beginnings Program for Newcomer Refugee
Children's long-standing collaboration with Journey's End Refugee Services and Buffalo Public Schools
expanded with a new partnership with Westminster Economic Development Initiative (WEDI) and its Focused
Learning for Youth (FLY) after school program for refugee children. Buffalo Beginnings and FLY staff
collaborated to share best practices and resources. An additional partnership with Buffalo Public's Lafayette
International High School was established to provide a home for both programs.
We continued offering Adult ESL and Citizenship classes with our partners Jericho Road Community Health
Center and NYS Office for New Americans. Jericho Road increased funding to the CAC for additional classes
based on successful implementation of our initial year of classes. Our new staff member, Eletha Thompson,
coordinates these classes along with other key responsibilities outlined on Page 8. Our services for multilingual
adults were further enhanced by the Buffalo Public Multilingual Parent Drop-in Center hosted at the CAC.
Representatives from Buffalo Public and interpreters assisted parents to answer school related questions
These developments for Buffalo Beginnings and ONA Classes demonstrate how the CAC is increasingly
integrated into Buffalo's international corridor.
Our special events further exemplify our mission and engrained approach to working collectively with
partners on campus and in the community with four key events described on Page 4. Our continued
sponsorship of the annual Taste of Diversity Festival provided Buffalo State students with the opportunity
to facilitate educational activities for 175 youth and families on Buffalo’s West Side. The Podolefsky AmeriCorps
ABLE Program, made possible through The Service Collaborative of WNY (TSCWNY), continued as a key
component in our ability to support our programs and events. In 2016-2017 6 Buffalo State students
volunteered as Podolefsky ABLEs serving a total of 2,000 hours supporting 279 individuals in educational
programming.
CAC partnerships have been integral to our growth and success over our first five years. Our connections with
local organizations enable us to align our services to simultaneously fill identified gaps and draw
on the expertise of our neighbors.
2016-2017 Program Developments
2 SUNY Buffalo State Com-munity Academic Center
Maureen McCarthy, Program Director
2011-2017 Impact Chart 3
Buffalo Public Schools
Citizens Bank
City of Buffalo
Community Academic Center
County of Erie Department of
Social Services
Every Person Influences
Children (EPIC)
H.E.A.L. International, Inc.
Herman Badilllo Bilingual
Academy
Hispanic Heritage Council of
WNY Inc.
International School #45
Journey's End Refugee Services
Jericho Road Community
Health Center
Lafayette International High
School
Lorigo's Meating Place
Newcomer Academy at
Lafayette
New York State
Niagara District Common
Councilmember David Rivera
Office of New Americans
PUSH Buffalo, Inc.
Rich Products Corporation
Say Yes to Education
SUNY Buffalo State Center for
Health & Social Research
SUNY Buffalo State Civic &
Community Engagement Office
The Belle Center
The Service Collaborative
of WNY
United Health Care
VIA Evaluation
West Buffalo Charter School
West Hertel Academy
West Side Community Services
Westminster Economic
Development Initiative Inc.
WNY United Against Drug &
Alcohol Abuse, Inc.
West Side Neighborhood
Housing Services
CAC Partners
CAC Impact Chart 2011-2017
4 Events at the CAC
Our Global Potluck in May 2017,
celebrated our Buffalo State and
community students, teachers and
volunteers.
Conflict Resolution Around
the World—Global to Local Taste of Diversity
This year the CAC celebrated our fifth
anniversary on December 1st, 2016 with an Open
House to share our current work and
accomplishments with our partners. Remarks
were given by Provost Melanie Perreault, David
Mauricio representing Buffalo Public Schools,
and Govinda Subedi and Erik Nevius, our CAC
citizenship instructors. Provost Perreault noted
since 2011, the CAC engaged more than 2,700
Buffalo State students and 32 faculty and staff to
support over 11,018 youth and family members
on Buffalo’s West Side. Over 40 people attended
the Open House.
Fifth Anniversary
A CAC panel discussion was held on
Wednesday March 15, 2017 on campus.
The discussion was moderated by Sam
MaGavern, co-director of the Partnership for
the Public Good and featured a panel of local
activists and educators. The panelists
discussed interracial and interethnic conflict
and resolutions. The program’s goal was to
understand the nuanced nature of conflicts
around the world as a local community and a
global society.
Events Constitution Day
Last fall the CAC, the Political Science Department,
and the Student Political Society & American
Democracy Project celebrated Constitution Day on
September 21, 2016 with an immigrant and refugee
panel, moderated by Dr. Peter Yacobucci.
ONA Adult Programming 5
Dahab Fukak displays her certificate
of U.S. Citizenship
Office for New Americans Classes
The Community Academic Center
has partnered with Jericho Road
Community Health Center
to facilitate the implementation
of a New York State Office for
New Americans (ONA) grant. This
grant has enabled the CAC to
offer English and citizenship
classes. In addition to the
expansion of programming, the
ONA grant has also allowed us to
pay our teachers with a quarterly
stipend. Our citizenship classes
help new Buffalonians prepare for the United States
Naturalization exam with the assistance of Buffalo State
volunteers and service-learners. Our English classes play
a vital role in preparing community students for the
citizenship test, which is administered in English.
Basanti Karki
Lok Karki
Ganga Rai
Siddig Abukar
Khinma Yee
Devi Mainali
Benino Abrahi
Dahab Fukakand
Shabar Bee
This year, we are excited to announce that nine of our
students passed the U.S. Citizenship test:
U.S. Citizenship and English Classes
6
The West Side Promise
Neighborhood (WSPN)
Initiative has had a very
productive year. WSPN
facilitated its second
annual Leadership
Program and put
together a strong
strategic plan.
Promise Neighborhoods
attempt to improve the
lives of children, from
cradle-to-college and
career by working with
others in the community. By having a common agenda, shared
measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous
communication, and a backbone organization, all children and their
families will be able to live in communities of opportunity. This summer,
13 graduates completed our second WSPN Leadership Program, a two-
month program sponsored by a grant from United HealthCare and co-
sponsored by Buffalo State, PUSH Buffalo and Open Buffalo.
Participants included community leaders and employees from PUSH,
Hispanics United, WEDI, Say Yes and the Buffalo Public
Schools. Mentors were recruited from Buffalo State, Rich Products, and
the Belle Center among others.
The WSPN team continues to grow. Currently the WSPN Core Team
has over 30 partners representing government, community-based
organizations, businesses, the Buffalo Public Schools and community
members. We have developed a strategic plan this year with the
support we received from Rich Products who had Shari Riff, Rich’s
strategic planner, work with a WSPN core team over a 3 ½ day period in
the spring.
We are excited as we work through the fall on identifying and
implementing activities consistent with the strategic plan. For a copy of
the plan, please contact Dr. John Siskar at [email protected].
What is a Promise
Neighborhood?
Promise
Neighborhoods—
communities of
opportunity centered
around strong
schools—to wrap
children in education,
health, and social
supports from the
cradle to college to
career. By effectively
coordinating the
efforts of schools,
families, social
services, health
centers, and
community-building
programs, all children
can fulfill their
promise.
West Side Promise Neighborhood
Buffalo Beginnings 7
"Buffalo Beginnings Program goes by so
quickly." That’s what we hear from both
newcomer students and Buffalo State
students who are Dr.
Aaron Podolefsky AmeriCorps
ABLE members. In our summer 2016 four-
week program, ABLEs worked in
small groups with Buffalo Beginnings
students teaching the English alphabet,
greetings from all around the world, colors, food, fruits and vegetables, numbers, and taking field trips.
Not long after our summer program was over we began our Buffalo Beginnings After School Program.
This year we were able to expand our long-time collaboration
with Journey's End Refugee Services and Buffalo Public
School 45. Starting in Fall 2016 we offered Buffalo Beginnings at
Lafayette High School, partnering with the Focused Learning for
Youth (FLY) after school program sponsored by Westminster
Economic Initiative (WEDI). Throughout the
program AmeriCorps ABLEs and newcomers built trusting
relationships and came to understand each other better,
despite communicating in several languages including Arabic,
Burmese, Kinyarwanda, Nepali, Somali, Swahili, and Tigrinya. All
of us were happy to see twenty-one newcomers finish Buffalo
Beginnings feeling confident and ready for school.
Abdi, Mahat, Sharmake and Vincent: They all share a love of
reading, although it may be in different languages (they
speak French, Mai Mai, Somali and Swahili). The students
joined the Buffalo Beginnings program through WEDI’s
Focused Learning for Youth (FLY) program at Lafayette
High School in Fall 2016. Sharmake said, "I love to learn,"
and remained in the class during the gym break, practicing
the alphabet with a teaching assistant. Occasionally,
Sharmake (pictured right) spoke with Kang, one of
the Dr. Podolefsky AmeriCorps ABLEs, in his native
language Swahili, asking questions about his schoolwork.
Buffalo Beginnings
214 Grant Street Buffalo, NY 14213 cac.buffalostate.edu [email protected] (716) 878-3289
Buffalo State student Ashley
McKillip has completed 2,000
hours with the CAC as an
AmeriCorps ABLE. Ashley served
in both Buffalo Beginnings and
ONA classes.
Sara Grzetich , pictured with ONA student
April Paw, finished a one-year AmeriCorps
VISTA term. Some of her accomplishments
include expanding adult programming,
recruiting adult students, and recruiting
and training volunteers.
Eletha Thompson is
the new Education
Assistant at the CAC.
She received her
Bachelor's degree in
Social Work and
Nonprofit
Administration from
Cleveland State
University, but is a
native Buffalonian.
She is currently
completing doctoral studies at D'Youville College, and hopes
to use her education and skills to empower and mobilize
oppressed communities to gain power, influence, and access
in society.
Eletha has developed evaluation tools for the citizenship
classes, training materials for Service-Learners and
Americorps volunteers. In the future, she hopes to expand
programs to continue to meet the mission of the CAC to serve
youth in the community. CAC Staff: Sara Grzetich, AmeriCorps VISTA
Maureen McCarthy, Program Director
Win Min Thant, Education Coordinator
Eletha Thompson, Education Assistant
ONA Teachers: Brooke Pierce, Multilingual English
Erik Nevius, Multilingual Citizenship
Govinda Subedi, Nepali Citizenship
Ze Yar Swe, Burmese English
CAC Campus Advisors: John Siskar, Senior Advisor for
Educational Pipeline Initiatives
Gary Welborn, Faculty
Sociology Department
Laura Hill Rao, Director
Civic and Community Engagement Office
CAC Team 8
Dr. Aaron Podolefsky
AmeriCorps ABLEs
Kang Guot
Monet Lewis
Ashley McKillip
Beh Meh
Matine Uwangabe
John Wesh