Buffalo Urban League’s new $25 million headquarters on East Side will bring with it ‘a lot of hope’
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — In an area cut off, forgotten and traumatized by a racist shooter, seeds of hope have been planted. On May 14, 2022, The Buffalo Urban League deployed FEMA-trained counselors to the Tops on Jefferson Avenue.
Then, less than a quarter mile down the street, they helped open the Buffalo Resiliency Center.
“People can drop in to get individual assistance,” Thomas Beauford Jr., the president/CEO of the Buffalo Urban League, said. “They can drop in there to find out about all the different programming that we’re having to just rebuild the community, their sense of safety, and promise of what can happen in the future.”
And now, across the street from that center, the Buffalo Urban League plans to open a new, $25 million headquarters. It will sit at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Dodge Street.
“The mission of the Buffalo Urban League is to help African Americans and others in underserved communities achieve their highest true social parody, economic self-reliance, power and civil rights,” Beauford said. “That’s the long answer. The short answer is: we empower communities and change lives.”
So what else does the Buffalo Urban League do? They help the young to the old.
“I’ll start with, we run a foster care and adoption agency… so we’re talking about the youngest age possible,” Beauford said.
They also have a variety of teen programming and provide scholarships to graduating high schoolers for college. They also help people get jobs who don’t have further schooling. They help people with housing too, and beyond.
“Our housing services range anywhere from… you don’t have housing, to you’re looking for housing, to ‘I want to improve my housing situation,’ to ‘I have treble with the affordability with my housing temporarily,’ all the way up to first-time homebuyers and financial literacy and working through the process… and even foreclosure prevention,” Beauford said.
The Buffalo Urban League first started serving the Queen City in 1927, originally on the East Side. In the 80s, they moved to the center of downtown: 15 Genesee St.
But lately, they’ve been bursting at the seams. After reconfiguring what they could in their three-story building, they decided to lease out satellite buildings across Buffalo.
“We’ve outgrown the space we’re in now,” Beauford said.
Their new headquarters will allow them to close some of those buildings, bringing most of what they need to their new space. That building will also include event space, some retail space and even housing. It will be kitty-corner to the Johnnie B Wiley Sports Pavilion, a place many have gathered to celebrate different events, each other and their community.
And the money will come from different funding. That includes $1 million from the Erie County Legislature, and another $1 million from the NYS Assembly and Majority leader, Crystal Peoples-Stokes.
They hope to move to the East Side in time for their centennial in 2027.
“We want to be a part of this energy that brings a lot of hope and starts to repair and restore this community,” Beauford said.
Latest Local News
Man accused of murder allegedly fled to Mexico in victim’s car
Man arrested, charged after Jamestown shooting incident
National Engineers Week at Buffalo Museum of Science inspiring engineers of the future
1 in custody after stabbing on Carolina Street
Western New Yorkers affected by widespread cell service outages
Kelsey Anderson is an award-winning anchor who came back home to Buffalo in 2018. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
