The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations. Disparities are stark, with Black and Native American women facing rates up to three times higher than non-Hispanic whites. To address these issues, the Biden Administration is prioritizing Black Maternal Health and designates April 11-17 as Black Maternal Health Awareness Week. Locally, the Buffalo Prenatal Perinatal Network (BPPN) empowers families through education, support, advocacy, and connecting them to resources in Western New York. Our guests, LuAnne Brown (CEO) and Cheryl Clark (Home Visiting Supervisor), share insights into BPPN's important work with this week's host, Andrea Ó Súilleabháin.

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City Year is a national service program through AmeriCorps that allows young people to work in local schools and make a difference in students’ lives. Two guests from City Year Buffalo, Jeanmarie Cieslica, Executive Director and Managing Director, as well as Amelia Heiselman, a recruiter for City Year, join host Sarah Wooton to give a run-down on what City Year is, how the program works locally, and how anyone ages 18-25 with a high school degree can apply. 

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Our guests this week are two local business owners. Brandi Barrett is co-owner of Barrett and Benitez Development, a real estate development company focusing on equitable built spaces in cities. Annie Adams owns Second Chic, a boutique consignment shop with two locations, one in the Elmwood Village, and the other in Williamsville. They are both members of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a group of businesses that recognize the value of paying workers a living wage. They’ll discuss why this benefits employees and business owners and what is being proposed as part of the New York State Raise the Wage Act.  

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In this episode, we learn about two new initiatives Say Yes Buffalo offers. Gellenia Smallwood, Senior Director of Early Childhood Services at Say Yes and Stephanie Peet, Director of Workforce Development, will discuss the Little Scholars Program for 3-year-olds in the Buffalo Public Schools and the CareerWise apprenticeship program for Buffalo Public Schools graduates with host Colleen Kristich.

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What happens when profits from a foreclosed property exceed what is owed on that property? In the past, the prior homeowner would get the remaining money, or surplus funds, returned to them. But this year, the City of Buffalo removed this policy and is keeping over $3.5 million in surplus funds from the 2019 auctions. Keisha Williams, Executive Director at the Western New York Law Center, and Kate Lockhart, Vacant and Abandoned Property Program Director at the Law Center, join Sarah Wooton to discuss why the City did this, what it means for homeowners, and what they want to happen next to see the return of these funds. 

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In PPG’s new report, “Raising the Minimum Wage: The Impact of Women, People of Color, and Immigrants in Western New York,” Sam Magavern, Senior Policy Fellow at PPG, and Rusty Weaver, Director of Research at Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab and today's guest, look at a New York State legislative proposal to raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation and worker productivity. 

In this episode, PPG’s Executive Director Andrea O Suillebhain and Rusty discuss what this means, how it would benefit workers – particularly women, people of color, and immigrants- and a new Wage Atlas tool that overlays median effective wage with other factors like race, education level, industry, and region.

Read the report "Raising the Minimum Wage...". And check out the Wage Atlas.

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This week's guests are Donna Latham-Edwards and Tim Chen of the Vacant Lots Task Force. Buffalo has thousands of city-owned vacant lots, especially on Buffalo's East Side. What are the next steps for positive, community-oriented development for these lots? PPG's Director of Community Research, Donna, and Tim discuss what community members want from the vacant land in their neighborhoods and recommendations for how to get there.

This episode first aired on Tuesday, February 14th at 10:30am. It was produced by Centrell Smith of WUFO - 96.5 FM/Mix 1080 AM with final edits by staff at Partnership for the Public Good.

To learn more about our work, visit our website at www.ppgbuffalo.org.