Social Activist to Discuss Immigrants And Refugees

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Nationally known California-based organizer, activist, writer and musician Francisco Javier Herrera will present an evening of dialogue and song at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16, in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo, 695 Elmwood Ave.

Herrera will discuss "The Lives of Immigrants & Refugees: Hope Through Adversity." Organizer and program director with Catholic Charities of the East Bay & Oakland Diocese Latino Ministries, he also is a recording artist and producer.

Sponsors of the event are the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, The Bertha Capen Reynolds Society-Erie County Chapter and the New York State Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Admission will be $5. Students with a current ID will be admitted free.

Herrera's special interests are Hispanic immigration and refugee affairs. He has collaborated with social workers, educators, and peace and human-rights activists relocating ex-combatants and aiding victims of torture, war trauma and economic dislocation. He also has expertise in cultural work and organizing for social change, mental health promotion, disaster preparedness and recovery, migration and resettlement, and organizational development. Herrera has worked extensively on the West Coast and in Mexico and El Salvador.

Herrera also will present a lecture for UB students and faculty from 6-7:50 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15, in Room 258 of Capen Hall on the North (Amherst) Campus. His topic will be "Cross Cultural Social Work: Interventions with Native Americans and New Immigrants."

His sponsoring organization is Caminante Cultural Work of San Francisco.

For more information, call the UB School of Social Work at 716-645-3381.