Uncategorized•
on February 23rd, 2012•
PPG has a radio show, the Public Good, each Tuesday from 1:00 to 1:30 pm on WUFO AM 1080. Each week we feature a PPG Partner or other person working toward the public good and discuss some of the region’s hottest issues.
Tuesday, March 13, at 1pm, tune into WUFO AM 1080 or www.wufoam.com to hear Robert Brunschmid from Theatre of Youth Company, Rahwa Ghirmatzion from Ujima Company, and Tod Kniazuk from Arts Services Initiative of WNY discuss county funding for arts and culturals.
You can find previous week’s shows here.
Uncategorized•
on February 23rd, 2012•
The third Buffalo Poverty Research Workshop offers everyone concerned with Buffalo’s poverty the chance to hear about new and ongoing research, promising strategies, and opportunities for collaboration. The workshop is designed for local scholars, social service agencies, advocates, and government leaders and staff, among others.
In addition to getting the latest data on local poverty, participants will hear about three innovative university-community collaborations: implementing the “Housing First” model to end chronic homelessness; teaching science and engineering in the Buffalo Public Schools; and improving health outcomes by paying heed to patient voices.
The presenters include:
- Karen Carman, Hope Center director, Matt Urban Human Services Center of WNY
- Elizabeth McClam, director, Homeless Services Program, Lake Shore Safe Haven, Lake Shore Behavioral Health
- Dale Zuchlewski, executive director, Homeless Alliance of Western New York
- Joseph Gardella, PhD, John and Frances Larkin Professor of Chemistry, University at Buffalo
- Daniel L. MacIsaac, PhD, Physics, Buffalo State College
- Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter, PhD, Family Medicine, University at Buffalo
- Rona D’Aniello, RD, Diabetes Education Coordinator, Family Medicine, University at Buffalo
- Sam Magavern, co-director, Partnership for the Public Good.
The Workshop takes place on Friday, March 2, 2012 from 9:00 am – 12:00 noon (registration from 8:30 am) at the Education Center and Atrium, Olmsted Center for Sight, 1170 Main Street, Buffalo.
The Workshop is free and open to the public. To register, email Sara Gales, sara@ppgbuffalo.org, or phone Megan Connelly, 852-4191, ext. 110.
The Poverty Research Workshop is sponsored by the Homeless Alliance of Western New York, the Partnership for the Public Good, the University at Buffalo Civic Engagement and Public Policy research initiative, and the Western New York Service Learning Coalition.
Uncategorized•
on February 23rd, 2012•
PPG joined more than a dozen elected officials, community, labor, and advocacy organizations in sending a letter to the Authorities Budget Office requesting an investigation of a tax break deal between the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) and Ward’s Natural Science, a division of VWR Educational LLC.
Read the complaint here.
The advocates contacted the ABO, the state agency charged with IDA oversight, after COMIDA failed to act to rescind VWR’s tax breaks. Members of the Getting Our Money’s Worth coalition claim that VWR is engaged in job shifting, an activity that IDAs are prohibited from subsidizing. The Getting Our Money’s Worth Coalition is a broad coalition of public policy experts, government watchdogs, labor unions, community and religious organizations, and concerned small business owners, workers and taxpayers. The statewide coalition is anchored by ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York and the Buffalo-based Coalition for Economic Justice
Further information about Industrial Development Agencies can be found here.
Uncategorized•
on February 23rd, 2012•
PPG Board Member and PUSH Buffalo Co-Founder Aaron Bartley’s second installment in a series of columns on cities, sustainability and grassroots organizing, was recently published on the Huffington Post. This one is focused on urban agriculture in Rust Belt cities. Check out “Rust Belt Cities and the New Urban Agrarianism” and you can find further resources on urban agriculture here.
Uncategorized•
on February 17th, 2012•
PPG’s latest policy brief tackles one of our region’s biggest barriers to sustainable community and economic development in Buffalo’s Sprawl: Fiscal, Environmental, and Social Costs.
Other resources on sprawl can be found here.
Uncategorized•
on February 17th, 2012•
Although nearly every legislator in New York State pledged to support independent redistricting, instead they have resorted to gerrymandering as usual. Common Cause has led an independent redistricting process and generated maps that are fair and impartial, proving that it can be done. New Yorkers now need to rise up and demand that lawmakers honor their promises and put an end to gerrymandering.
On February 16, PPG co-director Sam Magavern testified at a hearing before the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) regarding the proposed reform maps. Read the full testimony here.
Prior to the hearing, PPG held a press conference with Common Cause NY. You can read about the press conference along with further coverage of the hearing here.
Uncategorized•
on February 6th, 2012•
Fight for a Fair Economy is holding a training which will teach individuals how to help develop, implement, and change policies and practices that will result in an new economy that works for everyone. The training is Saturday, February 18 from 9am-12pm.
Who should come: Activists, leaders, and members of labor, community, faith organizations and anyone who wants to build their skills and strengthen the growing movement to confront corporate power.
The training will take place at the offices of 1199 SEIU located at 2421 Main Street, Suite 100 (near the First Niagara Bank)
8:30 Registration
Press Conference at noon!
For more information or to reserve your spot, contact the Coalition for Economic Justice at 892-5877
Uncategorized•
on February 2nd, 2012•
“Our partners are working on some of the key issues affecting our area like cutting pollution, reducing poverty, promoting good economic development. An adequate, comprehensive, affordable public transport system is absolutely key to all of those goals.”
PPG joined partner organizations VOICE, Citizens for Regional Transit, Buffalo CarShare and Green Options Buffalo yesterday at a press conference to call on state lawmakers to adequately fund the NFTA and avoid route reductions and fare increases. The group released PPG’s latest policy brief, State Funding for the NFTA Reduces Pollution, Fights Poverty, and Promotes Economic Development, supporting NFTA’s request for an additional $10 million in operating assistance and an additional eight megawatts in low cost power.
Check out the WBFO coverage here.
Save Buffalo-Niagara Transit is a current item on PPG’s 2012 Community Agenda.