Community Cultural Project | Journey’s End Refugee Services
Sponsored By:
“Uniland Development Company is proud to support Explore Buffalo’s work enabling people to discover Buffalo’s great architecture, history, and neighborhoods. Uniland is Explore Buffalo’s founding corporate sponsor for the Community Cultural Project, our new program highlighting the diverse history and culture of WNY’s communities.”
About This Program
Explore Buffalo is excited to discover the rich stories of past and present Western New York residents. Our goal through the Community Cultural Project is to educate locals about the diverse history and culture of their own community and promote a greater understanding of WNY’s diverse communities. We’re working to develop stronger relationships with local organizations to expand our understanding of what makes Buffalo such a unique place to live. This ongoing project will include special programming opportunities for the public along with these monthly spotlights. Stay tuned and share your thoughts with us along the way!
Community Cultural Project: Journey’s End
June 2021
Greetings from Journey’s End Refugee Services, Inc.! We want to thank our community partner Explore Buffalo for giving us the opportunity to tell you a little more about our work and our newest neighbors in the City of Good Neighbors.
Who We Are & What We Do
- Founded in 1985 as a faith-based, community-based organization.
- Organized to provide integration services to refugees from Southeast Asia who came to WNY in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
- Employs over 50 people
- Provides 360-degree services to refugees arriving in Buffalo from around the world.
- Since our founding, our services and programs have served well over 100,000 refugees and their families and others in our vibrant immigrant community.
Programs & Resources
Journey’s End provides refugees with the resources and support they need to become successful, active, and productive members of our community by providing them with case management assistance when they first arrive.
- Finding affordable housing
- Scheduling necessary medical and social service appointments
- Introducing them to resources in the community
- Employment services
- Setting up bank accounts
Journey’s End also provides education programs and immigration legal services for refugees and the larger immigrant community. Some of the services provided include permanent resident & citizenship services, family reunification, and immigration status matters. Watch this short video of the many ways we help refugees.
Our Community Outreach department has an active roster of over 220 volunteers that act as mentors, ELL home tutors, School Moms, and other roles that help give refugees a soft landing in their new home. Journey’s End is always accepting new volunteers. We’re especially looking for volunteer groups to help with our signature Home Again program and donation drives of various items as refugee arrivals increase in the coming year! Learn more about the Home Again Program
Journey’s End also has an urban farm run by refugees on Brewster St., close to our headquarters at the historic Tri-Main Center in North Buffalo. Watch the moving story of our lead farmer, Bir Rai, who came to Buffalo as a Bhutanese refugee from a camp in Nepal.
Fun Facts
Did You Know… 
Journey’s End founded and hosts the Western New York Refugee Film Festival. WNYRFF is now in its third season and the first of its kind in the country. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this year, the festival is available for free online! Check out the schedule, learn more, and join in at www.wnyrff.org
New translated walking routes! The Journey’s End Interpreting and Translation Department, which employs freelance interpreters and translators in over fifty languages and has customers in the medical, legal, and educational fields throughout WNY, is now working with Explore Buffalo to translate walking tour maps into other languages to better serve our international tourists to the Nickel City! Explore Buffalo’s Downtown ‘Best of Buffalo’ self-guided walking route is now available in Spanish and Arabic. Both are available for free at www.explorebuffalo.org/walking-routes
Learn More & Get Involved
So stop by the Tri-Main Center lobby on Thursday afternoons to buy produce from our refugee farmers during the growing season. Or consider doing a Home Again for a new refugee family (we guarantee it will the most rewarding, meaningful group volunteer activity you will ever do!). Do a Welcome Kit for a family or become a home tutor for a stay-at-home refugee mom. Do a FUN-raiser or donation drive at work, school, or church. Become a sustaining donor to the work of Journey’s End here: www.jersbuffalo.org/donate
Whether you are an individual, a group of family and friends, active in your faith community, an educator or student involved in college or K-12 school clubs, a member of your professional association looking for creative ways to volunteer, there are so many fun ways to be involved. Let’s talk! Email: volunteer@jersbuffalo.org for more info
Thank you for taking this journey with us of our work today!