New website provides info about UB outreach into community

The Office of Community Relations has launched a new website aimed at giving residents who live in the neighborhoods around the UB campuses and around Western New York an online source of information about what the university has to offer the surrounding community.

Launched in late March, UB and You provides a broad range of information about community outreach events, what UB is doing to help improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, the university’s involvement in the local business community and UB news and events.

The website builds on the office’s efforts to serve as a gateway to the community and ensure that UB is an engaged partner and neighbor, says Tess Morrissey, director of community relations.

“There’s so much happening at UB that people aren’t aware of,” she says. “Now they can just go to the website and see all the ways UB has an impact in the community.”

The easy-to-navigate website offers information about the Office of Community Relations and its programs, as well as details of how members of the university community are actively shaping and responding to the needs of the community through research, grassroots initiatives, public events and projects.

So what is UB doing for the community?

The site offers a community outreach index that provides links to more than 50 health and wellness, education and research, and business and economic development programs, from those that work to address access to oral care, to law clinics staffed by UB students, a camp to help middle school students improve their skills in reading, writing, computer use and problem-solving, to providing training, research, knowledge and opportunity for entrepreneurs.

A special section also encourages community members to get involved with the university and learn more about what it has to offer them, such as health-related programs available to residents, lifelong learning through UB’s 60 and Over Auditors Program, summer camps and lecture series.

For Our Neighbors provides valuable information about resources aimed at enhancing connections between the university and its immediate neighbors, including the semiannual UB Neighbor newsletter and a listserv to help members of the community stay up to date on news and events.

It also offers information about such community partners as the University Heights Collaborative, University Heights Tool Library and University Heights Business Association, as well as volunteer efforts, such as ReTree the District, Bailey Fights Blight and the Fruit Belt Clean-a-thon, that bring UB students into the neighborhoods for community service projects. In addition, the website offers a page of community-related events throughout the university, as well as events held off campus that are of interest to students, faculty and staff.