Buffalo Urban League Continues to Help Community After Shooting

BUFFALO (Oct. 3, 2022) – The Black community in Buffalo received a national outpouring of support after the tragic shooting in Topps supermarket back in May.

But after a shooting that police said was racially motivated, many members of the Black community didn’t feel comfortable speaking to white counselors.

“They completely rejected it,” President and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League (Buffalo, NY), Thomas Beauford Jr., said. “The immediate reaction to the counselors was, ‘We need to see counselors that look like us.’”

In the days that followed, the issue was addressed and handled. Erie County’s director of health equity Kelly Wofford reached out to her network for Black counselors.

Now, there’s Black counselors who are helping a community that is still very much reeling from the loss.

The Urban League found an open space not far from the location of the shooting, and it is within those walls that members of the community find solace. The community resource center also connects people to resources that they wouldn’t know about.

The Urban League is continuing it’s work in helping this traumatized community, working with the new Eric County Office of Health Equity, to propel real change moving forward.

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