The Seneca Street Community Development Corporation is holding a fundraiser to raise money to continue the free programs our organization provides to the South Buffalo community. The event is on Thursday, February 23, from 6-8pm at Resurgence Brewery. The purchase of one ticket includes 2 drink tickets at the bar as well as food. We will also have basket raffles, a silent auction, and a 50/50 raffle. A ticket to the Seneca Street CDC Resurgence Fundraiser is $25.
The Seneca Street Community Development Corporation (CDC) is a small, 501(c)3 non-profit located in the Seneca Babcock neighborhood of South Buffalo. The Seneca Street CDC provides educational After School, summer and Teen Programs free of charge to sixty students and ten teens, many of whom are caught in the cycle of generational poverty.
During the After School program, which is currently in session, the children are comprehensively supported by college student volunteers and community volunteers who assist with homework. The CDC staff and volunteers also provide recreational and enrichment classes, and by community members who assist in the kitchen to provide the children with both snack and dinner Monday through Thursday throughout the school year.
Seneca Street Community Development Corporation’s services address a variety of serious gaps in the area. Seeing as the Seneca Babcock community has been categorized as a food desert, they ameliorate concerns over food security by providing dinner, which may be the only meal available for the children until breakfast the next morning at their schools. They address concerns of low academic achievement through the presence of college student volunteers who have been thoroughly trained to assist and encourage the children to succeed, health and obesity by providing healthy snacks and meals and by hosting physical enrichment programs such as Girls on the Run and also provide the students with reliable role models and assist them as they grow and develop into teens and adults.
The Seneca Street CDC provides these services free of charge; by charging families for this care, they fear that many of the students in the neighborhood would be unable to attend the program leaving them without a safe place to spend their afterschool hours, without homework help and without extracurricular activities. In order to provide these services, however, they have become dependent on grants, fundraisers, and private donations.
