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Home > Leadership > Mayor > Archive Press Releases > 2006 Archives > April 2006 > Mayor Brown Presents "Safe Haven" Funds To Community Agencies

Mayor Brown Presents "Safe Haven" Funds To Community Agencies


Source/Contact
Office of the Mayor
Peter K. Culter
Director of Communications
716-851-4841

Funds will Promote Citywide Weed and Seed Strategy

BUFFALO—Ten community service agencies will be the recipients of funding from Mayor Byron W. Brown's Buffalo Weed and Seed initiative, which is a program run through the Mayor's Office of Citizens Services.  The Mayor awarded a total of $142,256.93 to the community service agencies (see attachment).

"These grants will help to continue the successful work that we have seen the Buffalo Weed and Seed project achieve over the past nine years," said Mayor Brown.  "The Safe Havens initiative is crucial to rebuilding our neighborhoods and making them strong again.  These activities tie-in perfectly with other quality of life initiatives my Administration is pursuing through the Buffalo Police Department, with our Zero Tolerance Law Enforcement plan, as well as other city departments." 

Buffalo Weed and Seed has partnered with community and faith-based organizations to provide multiple services to target area residents. Safe Havens are multi-service centers that coordinate youth and adult services in a highly visible, secure, and accessible facility. In a Safe Haven, youth learn to resist negative influences and other problems associated with drug use and other crimes.

"These funds will help Buffalo Weed and Seed reduce various risk factors and institute protective approaches in Weed and Seed neighborhoods. Through our Prevention, Intervention and Treatment model, Safe Havens are the centerpiece for providing services and giving the neighborhood a facility from which to coordinate resources to help us promote a safe and healthy community," Antwan K. Diggs, Senior-Program Coordinator.

Weed and Seed is a U.S. Department of Justice initiative granted to the City of Buffalo that helps communities remove crime and blight by introducing special federal and local law enforcement efforts (weeding) followed by an intense neighborhood restoration and prevention/intervention regimen (seeding).

Funding for Current Weed and Seed Safe Havens include: West Side Community Services, Ashbury Shalom Zone, Arts Alive, Massachusetts Avenue Project, Boy and Girls Club of Buffalo, There's None Like You Family Educational Community Outreach Program, International League of Muslim Women, Saint Columba/Brigid Teen Center, C.R.U.C.I.A.L. Human Services and the Delavan Grider Community Center.

Also, the local Weed and Seed initiative has received pending notification of another site designation on the Lower East Side. Official Recognition Designation is the first step in the Weed and Seed process.  Currently, Buffalo has two officially recognized and designated sites on the East and West Sides of Buffalo. 

The Buffalo Weed and Seed program is now entering its ninth year of operation.