HEALTH AND WELLNESS

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

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STRENGTHENING, SUPPORTING, & BUILDING FAMILIES 

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.

SENIOR’S MULTI SERVICE CENTER

Since the Buffalo Urban League’s inception in 1927, the Senior’s Multi-Service Center has been a significant resource to senior citizens living in this community. We deliver programs and services that help adults age 55 and over to live their best lives by mastering the aging process.


Seniors participate in daily community center activities that promote health and wellness, reduce social isolation, and provide poverty reduction assistance. 

Daily transportation to and from the center, congregate dining, workshops on improving health and managing chronic diseases, shopping trips, an emergency food bank, attendance to social events, and developing new friendships are just a few examples of what seniors enjoy daily at the Senior’s Multi-Service Center. If you are looking for a new opportunity to stay active and healthy, we invite you to call us for more information. Enrollment in the program is year-round, and there is never a fee for services.

FOSTER CARE & ADOPTION

The Buffalo Urban League provides community-based programs that are committed to enhancing the quality of life for children through foster care and adoption. Our priority is to approve homes that will provide a stable, safe, loving, and positive environment for children on a temporary basis through foster care, or permanently through adoption. Foster care provides a safe, loving and nurturing temporary home for children who may not have the stability and safety they need. Adoption makes those homes permanent.


You do not have to:

  • Own your home
  • Have high income


You may:

  • Be married or single
  • Already have children
  • Be divorced or legally separated
PREVENTIVE SERVICES

The Buffalo Urban League’s Preventive Services program provides in-home family counseling and education programs designed to prevent the disruption of troubled families and reduce out-of-home placement of children into publicly funded care facilities/foster care. We offer families and communities an option for assuring that out-of-home placement is used only when absolutely necessary, giving families the opportunity to change their lives and learn to live together safely and independently. Our philosophy is that families can be taught skills that will promote positive changes within the family structure. The goal of the Family Preservation and Support Services program is to provide services specific to stabilizing the family so that children are safe in their home environment and families can remain together.


Any parent or caretaker who is at least 18 years old is eligible to receive services. Eligibility is not based on income; however, the Erie County Department of Social Services must authorize a family to receive services. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact us.

Intensive Home-Based Preventive Services

Intensive Home-Based Preventive Services (IHB) are provided to families referred by the Erie County Department of Social Services deemed necessary and whose needs mandate intensive services to families whose children are at imminent risk of out-of-home placement, or who are in placement and cannot be reunified without intensive in-home services. Intensive service provision of casework services for multi-problem and/or severely dysfunctional families are provided in the family's home and/or in the community. Likewise, case workers are available to clients 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, which allows close monitoring of potentially dangerous situations and to diffuse the potential for violence.



Services are delivered in the client's home or the community where the problems are occurring and, ultimately, where they need to be resolved. The IHB utilize the Homebuilders model, an evidenced-based initiative (Institute for Family Development-IFD) which has an over 92% success rate after case closing for keeping children in the home, according to the California Evidenced-Based Warehouse of initiates.

WRAPAROUND PROGRAM

The Wraparound Program is designed to improve the lives of families that are raising at-risk youth faced with social, emotional, mental and/or behavioral challenges. Our services are provided in partnership with the youth, their parents and/or caregivers, referral sources, and other community support. We emphasize family empowerment!


Families often have the answers to their problems and are capable of resolving them if given the right support. We guide families in their choices, using their strengths to overcome their challenges.


Families are guided towards sustainability and self-sufficiency.

To become a Wraparound vendor, you must:

  • Be over the age of 18
  • Possess a minimum of a high school diploma or GED/HSE
  • Possess a valid driver’s license and insured vehicle (proof of insurance is required)
  • Be able to pass a background check
  • Not have been a subject of Child Protective Services investigation
  • Possess experience working with youth experiencing serious emotional, behavioral, and social challenges


For more information about becoming a Wrap vendor, please call us.

COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER PROGRAM

Community Health Workers are a critical part of the solution. We provide outreach, information, referral, advocacy, and other support to promote health for underserved communities and strengthen the cultural competence of health and service organizations. By fostering accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate care, CHWs are helping to address persistent health disparities for vulnerable populations and create healthier, more equitable communities.


Our services are free of charge and can be obtained at Catholic Health Centers. You must be a patient at that specific center to receive services. Community Health Workers are located on site; no appointment is necessary for consultation.

COMMUNITY CENTER @ CRUCIAL

“It takes a community to build a center.”


The Community Center is investing in what works to better our community, strengthen our families, provide resources to make changes, and make a positive impact in and around Fillmore District.


Youth programs will instill skills in our young participants, guiding them in making a successful transition to self-sufficiency and responsible adulthood.


Senior programs will allow our community elders to take part in mind enriching, social activities to help stimulate their minds which we all need as we experience life.


Buffalo Urban League will provide programs, partnerships, and resources throughout the city of Buffalo, allowing our community to work together, to build a legacy beyond our walls.


Like the old saying, it takes a village (community) to raise a child; we have our doors open to the community, for the community.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS 
  • In our foster care & adoption programs, 100% of children who were eligible to be reunited with their parents, or were eligible for adoption, were successfully reunited with their families or placed in permanent homes.



  • 253 children at risk of foster care in our Preventive Services program were safely maintained in their homes, averting foster care placement.
  • 98% of seniors, ages 75 and older, who received services at our Seniors’ Multi-Service Center continued living independently in their homes in the community.


  • Our CHW Program established itself as a trailblazing program, impacting 4,945 lives in the clinics of the Catholic Health System.
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