Daemen College : Academics & Research : Centers & Initiatives : Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement : West Side Partnership

Daemen College-West Side Partnership

By offering direct services and collaborating with community agencies, the Daemen College-West Side Partnership aims to address educational, economic, and environmental problems impeding the development and vitality of this neighborhood and the success of its youth.

Daemen College Civic Engagement: Refugee Teen Empowerment Program

Since 2003, Daemen College students and faculty have provided direct services to refugees living on the West Side of Buffalo through the Daemen College-West Side Partnership. Daemen community initiatives started with basic mentoring by social work students and now include working with the student refugee population at Buffalo’s Grover Cleveland High School.
Daemen College has most recently received grant funding for a key component of its West Side Partnership Program – the Refugee Teen Empowerment Program at Grover Cleveland High. The College was awarded a grant of $29,042 from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo for the program, coordinated by the Daemen Center for Sustainable Communities & Civic Engagement. The grant will make graduating high school and a college education possible for refugee students who come to Buffalo after escaping strife, and, often, war in their native countries.   
The focus of the Daemen Refugee Teen Empowerment Program is Regents Exam preparation and high school graduation, accomplished through tutoring sessions coordinated by the Daemen Center for Sustainable Communities & Civic Engagement. Students in the Daemen Service Learning Program serve as mentors as well as tutors to refugee students enrolled at Buffalo’s Lafayette High School, offering exposure to college life and the possibility of college after high school. The program has been very successful and influential in the lives of refugee youth.

“This grant will have a lasting impact on the refugee students who dream of attending college, but find it so difficult to pass the Regents examinations,” noted Cheryl Bird, Executive Director of the Daemen Center for Sustainable Communities & Civic Engagement. “Most of the students we work with have spent their lives in refugee camps, with little education available to them, but still have the same accountability as native born US students for testing after one year in the country. This award will play a significant role in helping these refugees graduate from high school and achieve their dream of college.

 
One young male student, uprooted from his home in Somalia, poignantly expressed his feelings in writing: “My name is Abdikarim Abdullahi and I am seventeen years old. I would like to be able to pursue my dream of becoming a social worker and begin my higher education at Daemen College. I would like to be a social worker because there are so many poor people in Africa that I have seen struggling. I was born in Somalia, where we were forced to leave because of war…we…went to a refugee camp in Kenya. There was not enough food or water for all of us. In the camp there was a lot of violence. There were two groups of people from different cultures that were fighting: the Sudanese and the Turkanas. The Turkanas killed people because they wanted food. Therefore, the camp was not safe. If I become a social worker I will be able to help people that are struggling…I want to go to college because I want to make my family proud. I want to have a good future. When I get my degree I will be able to help other people from my country, and other places around the world.”
Abdikarim is currently pursuing his educational dreams in New York State; there are other Grover Cleveland High School refugee students with similar ambitions who have, in fact, made it to Daemen as undergraduates.    
From January through June 2010, 88% of the participants who were seniors (15 students) successfully graduated from high school. Grant funds will be used toward pay for the program’s teachers and advisor, bus tokens, program materials, supplies for students, and indirect costs.
For additional information on the Daemen Refugee Teen Empowerment Program contact Cheryl Bird, Executive Director, Daemen College Center for Sustainable Communities and Civic Engagement – (716) 839-8489, cbird@daemen.edu .
NOTE: The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo (CFGB) is a public charity holding more than 800 different charitable funds, large and small, established by individuals, families, nonprofit agencies and businesses to benefit Western New York.  Since 1919, the Foundation has served the needs of this community and the wishes of their donors through personalized service, financial stewardship, local expertise, and community leadership. For additional information visit: www.cfgb.org.
Submitted by: Mike Andrei, Director of College Relations, Daemen College