SUNY Buffalo State An institution that serves to improve our region, our nation, and our world, one student at a time. SUNY’s Only 4 Year Urban Campus

Carnegie Application Highlights of Findings Buffalo State’s long history of community engagement work has evolved to such a point that we felt confident submitting a first-time application to become a Carnegie Community-Engaged campus this year. CE supported all across and at all levels of the institution. CE and service learning referred to in all our campus publications. Service Learning represented in all academic schools: 90 courses in 2012-13; 18% of freshman and 52% of seniors participated in service learning or volunteerism; 1,761 students in SL courses. Buffalo State supports a wide array of centers whose missions include substantial engagement with external constituents. In 2012-13, almost $2 million in state dollars committed to community engagement work. Almost $2 million in external funding supports the work.

Carnegie Application Highlighted Partnerships Volunteer and Service Learning Center Community Academic Center Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education Anne Frank Project Burchfield Penney Art Center Professional Development School Consortium Great Lakes Center Center for Health and Social Research Small Business Development Center Center for the Development of Human Services Liberty Partnerships I am College Bound Our Professional Development Schools Consortium include over 40 schools in Western New York as well as New York City, the Dominican Republic, Chile, and Zambia. The BS PDS holds an annual retreat, at which PDS partners, faculty, and students present their current year’s research projects for review and discussion.  Much of the research that comes out of these “mini-grant” projects is further presented at state and national level conferences and is published in professional journals. Funds up to 12 research projects annually All methods courses are taught on site in the schools. The Great Lakes Center actively conducts collaborative research with other institutions and agencies in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The research focuses primarily on Lakes Erie and Ontario and their tributaries, although national and international projects are also a priority. Over the last year, GLC personnel collaborated with institutions in North America, Europe, and South America. Eleven projects for research and education (including multi-year grants) are currently funded in the GLC totaling $3,298,513. In collaboration with Cornell University, the GLC was awarded a US EPA Great Lakes Long-term Biological Monitoring grant for 2012-2017.   CAC is unique by design. It is geographically placing the college within the community, pushing past the traditional boundaries between campus and community. More than just its physical location, the CAC places itself in a distinctive space in terms of the services provided. Using a three-pronged approach, the Center provides direct programming to youth and families, supports existing programs and partner organizations, and enhances the network between organizations supporting youth and families. Last year, 7,521 youth and their families, 1,721 Buffalo State students and 34 Buffalo State faculty participated at the CAC.

AFP = The Anne Frank Project and Conference The Anne Frank Project and Conference: The annual conference opens our academic year and the ongoing project expands the connections faculty, staff and students have with external constituents.  The conference is most centrally a manifestation of the way we engage our students to consider the challenge Anne Frank implicitly left us all: “How wonderful it is that nobody need to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”  The project continues throughout the year through interactions between campus and community folks; it partners with Buffalo schools and various organizations, and it has an active partnership with organizations in Rwanda.  Efforts in Arts and Culture

Academic Service -Learning Efforts in Strengthening Community Capacity The Volunteer and Service-Learning Center (VSLC) leads efforts to integrate service with learning in departments across campus while improving the success of local agencies and schools in meeting the needs of community residents. Last academic year, 48 faculty taught 101 service-learning courses to a combined 1,684 students who worked with 133 community organizations providing 41,435 hours of service.

NEA Our Town project: Grant Street Global Voices The mural is one part of a larger initiative we call “Global Voices” which utilizes the arts to celebrate the rich and diverse people who make up Buffalo’s West Side. The partners for the project include Young Audiences of WNY, SUNY Buffalo State and its Community Academy Center, The West Side Business and Taxpayers Association, Councilman David Rivera’s Office, the Buffalo Public Schools and the residents of Buffalo’s West Side. Projects included over sixty workshops, displays of art in the windows of businesses along Grant Street, and arts cards of student work. Efforts in Arts and Culture

Institute for Community health promotion (ICHP) ICHP uses research & education to support the development of healthy communities and individuals. It includes two centers: The Center for Health and Social Research focuses on Health research, community-based programs, health planning, prevention, evaluation, and data collection/analysis. One community example is the West Side Youth Development Coalition which is a SAMHSA funded initiative that includes 200 community partners including the Buffalo Public Schools; business, community, and civic organizations; parents; block clubs; and law enforcement. The Center for Development of Human Services develops and implements training and technical support for child welfare, foster care/adoption, and social services agencies. For example, the Child Welfare/Child Protective Services Training which is funded by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, trains all child welfare/CPS staff for every county in New York State. Efforts in Health, Safety & Environment

West Side Promise Neighborhood Buffalo State’s Community Academic Center, which opened in 2011, has served as the hub for our West Side Promise Neighborhood grant project.  There are more than 100 community organizations working to develop a grass-roots community action plan, comprehensively executed in a manner respectful of neighborhood needs, cultural diversity, and stakeholder roles which will create a cradle–to–career environment built for the success and achievement of the children and families living on Buffalo’s West Side.  Virtually all of the Buffalo State initiatives mentioned in this presentation are connected to this effort in one way or another, and it represents our commitment to fulfilling our mission and to becoming an anchor institution for the City of Buffalo. Efforts in Community Building & Education