The ILR School has a long-standing interest in the economy of Greater Buffalo, the site of the first ILR Extension office opened in 1946. For almost seventy years, ILR has been at work in Buffalo, providing education and applied research, facilitating collaborative strategies and linking both faculty and students to Buffalo through decades of economic and workplace change.
Today ILR Buffalo programs are unique, as is our office complex. Faculty members affiliated with the ILR Worker Institute provide a wide range of workforce development training to vulnerable and disadvantaged workers including programs specifically for formerly incarcerated individuals. They work directly with local organizations, unions and employers to advance workplace safety and health, environmental sustainability, labor-management cooperation, and worker justice.
Buffalo is a living laboratory for our undergraduates in a highly successful summer fellowship, The High Road Runs through the City, a program that is offered jointly with the Partnership for the Public Good. Over the past ten years, 160 ILR undergraduates from all over the country have served over 45 local nonprofit organizations through this popular applied research and service learning program.
INITIATIVES
Health Care and Health and Safety
Providing technical assistance, on-site/in-house workshops and certifications established to advance knowledge and heighten responsiveness to workplace, health care and environmental issues.
Environment
Collaborating with and providing training for a coalition of labor, business, environmental and community leaders for the reduction of carbon emissions, oil imports and to position workers to thrive in the 21st Century economy.
Labor and Leadership
Training designed for union members, leaders and activists to gain valuable skills to successfully respond to new conditions confronting the American workforce.
Precarious Workforce
Focusing on the rights and conditions of low-wage and contingent workers, the most vulnerable segment of the workforce.
Service Learning & Action Research Fellowships for ILR Students
This Fellowship program provides opportunities for ILR Students to participate in group research, active learning and service in community-based economic development.