Buffalo Urban League

About

Family Preservation and Support: In keeping with our commitment to support, strengthen, and build families, the Buffalo Urban League focuses our programs on supporting individuals from birth through senior years. We recognize family as the critical foundation of all our work. Through our Preventive, Foster Care, Adoption, High Fidelity Wraparound Vendor Services, Seniors’ Multi-Service Center, and our Community Health Workers (CHW), we cover a wide array of services including child abuse prevention, foster care and foster care prevention, adoption, family reunification, parent education, family counseling, health, and wellness.

YOLO Program: In the YOLO program, the youth will learn basic job readiness skills with a focus on their HSE. This exciting program provides services includes classroom training, on-the job training, job shadowing and work experience with the opportunity to earn monetary stipends. The YOLO program focuses on preparing youth for career pathways in areas consist with the needs of the labor market, such as Advanced Manufacturing, Health Care and Hospitality and Tourism. Based on need, youth can participate in programming for up to 30 hours per week for 26 weeks. To be eligible, you must be a youth, between the age of 16 – 24 who is out of school and in need of their High School Equivalency (HSE).

Housing and Community Development Programs: As the oldest HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) approved Housing Counseling Agency in Western New York, the Buffalo Urban League’s Housing and Community Development (H&CD) Department delivers solutions by providing our neighbors with homeownership education, first-time homebuyer assistance, financial empowerment (budget and credit) coaching, foreclosure prevention counseling, predatory lending avoidance, affordable rental search coaching, fair housing education, and minority and women business loan and technical assistance.

Our team of highly trained housing professionals have more than 100 years of combined real estate, banking, mortgage, and small business development experience. We strive to ensure that all of our programs are available to everyone in need in Erie County focusing on the City of Buffalo. You can routinely find our team in our neighborhoods, meeting with people one on one and conducting workshops, with the overall goal to educate and increase our neighbors’ knowledge base.

Workforce Development – Education, Job Training and Employment: Through our workforce development programs, we provide education, job training, and employment services that ensure individuals are prepared to secure employment opportunities leading to economic self-reliance. High educational achievement is a critical pathway to achieving economic self-reliance.
Our year-round programs for high school students and out-of-school programs for youth who have not received a high school diploma or a high school equivalency diploma (HSE, formerly GED) provide academic support, tutoring, cultural awareness, restorative justice, career exploration, mentoring, money management, college and business tours, work experience, and case management. Upon graduation, we transition graduates into college, job training programs, jobs, apprenticeships and/or the military. In addition, we award college scholarships to high school and high school equivalency (HSE) graduates from the Buffalo-Niagara Region.
The program’s purpose is to further prepare individuals for the workforce by providing job training, job placement, follow-up and supportive services in areas that respond to the needs of businesses.