Buffalo State College will host a community reception to celebrate the inauguration of its Volunteer and Service Learning Center from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004, in the Fireside Lounge of the Campbell Student Union, on the campus at 1300 Elmwood Ave.

The college's new Volunteer and Service Learning Center, administered though its Career Development Center, will coordinate students and provide training and orientation for service learning projects funded by Buffalo State's $375,000 Learn and Serve America Grant.

The Learn and Serve America grant, the only one in New York State awarded to a college and one of just 46 awarded nationwide, will fund “The Civic Engagement Project: Learning in Service of Community,” a three-year program the college developed to address the socioeconomic needs of Buffalo's West Side through service learning initiatives. Gary Welborn, associate professor of sociology, and Stephanie Zuckerman-Aviles, director of the Career Development Center, are co-principals on the grant.

Buffalo State worked closely with the West Side Community Collaborative – comprising more than 30 West Side not-for-profit, community- and faith-based organizations – and representatives from local private and public schools, to develop initiatives designed to improve area neighborhood housing, education, health, public safety and economic development.

This year's initiatives include tutoring elementary children, providing assistance to potential or existing micro-enterprise or small business entrepreneurs and building community pride through the creation of a unique “community storybook” that will help tell the history and current story of the rebuilding of Buffalo's West Side.

Muriel Howard, president of Buffalo State College, will give remarks at the Feb. 12 reception, as will Dennis Ponton, provost and vice president for academic affairs, and Hal Payne, vice president for student affairs.