Orchard Park Friends desire to help build a just and peaceful world for every person. To that end, we currently support these organizations with volunteer efforts and funding.
Peruvian Outreach Project (POP)
The Peruvian Outreach Project is a nonprofit working to enhance the lives of vulnerable children and young people living in Tarapoto in the San Martin Department of Peru. POP has completed many projects at the Aldea Infantil Virgen del Pilar Orphanage (from which POP’s founder and OPFM Member Cristian Johnson was adopted in 2000) and have recently established the Hogar Hermelinda Home For Young Women, providing a safe home for young women coming from rural areas of the Amazon whose families cannot afford to support their studies after high school.
Friends of Kenya Rising (FKR)
FKR assists families and their children as they rise out of poverty in Western Kenya through education, agriculture, starting small businesses, and community efforts to repair homes. This project was born out of a spiritual leading of our member Alison Hyde. As part of the Meeting’s international outreach, the Meeting supports FKR’s Family Care Program.
Family Promise of Western New York
Family Promise provides emergency shelter for homeless families, keeping families together during the crisis of homelessness, one of only two shelters in Erie County that keep homeless families together. They offer a home-like environment tailored to the unique needs of each family.
Jericho Road Community Health Center Buffalo
Jericho Road Community Health Center provides holistic health care for the underserved and marginalized to be healthy, educated, and whole; in order to demonstrate the unconditional love of Jesus. Jericho Road also supports Vive (formerly Vive La Casa) which provides help and housing for people seeking asylum in the US and Canada.
Housing Opportunity Made Equal (H.O.M.E.)
H.O.M.E serves the Western New York community through advocacy, the enforcement of fair housing laws, education, and the creation of housing opportunities. It is the only agency providing comprehensive services for those affected by housing discrimination. HOME’s mission is to provide families with equal opportunities to fair housing.
Oglala tribe, Wounded Knee Community on the Pine Ridge Reservation, SD
Through Farmington-Scipio Regional Meeting, Friends learn from and respond to the residents of Wounded Knee about, for example, the need for food, blankets and other essentials during frigid winters. Anew garden project to provide food at Wounded Knee has been supported.
Peace of the City Buffalo
Peace of the City has worked in for over 30 years, linking Advocacy, Transformation, Literacy, and the Arts so as to radically shift the trajectory of youth in Buffalo. Peace of the City shares deep relationships that challenge and support young people in taking action to build their futures and break the cycle of poverty in Buffalo’s youth.
VOICE Buffalo
VOICE Buffalo has been working since 1996 to build a movement led by people of faith and those affected by injustices in our systems, working to make a world where People of Color aren’t lost to violence and incarceration. VOICE Buffalo works with Faith in Action to achieve these goals.
Back to Basics Outreach Ministry
Back to Basics (BTB) provides special services for at-risk individuals, families or groups of all walks of life with their most immediate needs. As individuals struggle in life with poverty, no support systems, dysfunction, traumas, drug & alcohol addiction, mental illnesses, homelessness, criminal activity and other things relating to certain demographics, BTB is dedicated to providing services to improve the quality of life for residents in the City of Buffalo and surrounding communities by focusing on at-risk individuals and their family members.
WNY Peace Center
WNY Peace Center has been working for peace and justice for all at home and abroad since it’s founding in 1967 as a branch of Dr. MLK’s Clergy and Laity Concerned. They are dedicated to prevention of violence to all people and to the planet, to economic and educational justice and respect for people of all cultures.
Stitch Buffalo
Stitch Buffalo is a textile art center committed to empowering refugee and immigrant women through the sale of their handcrafted goods, inspiring creativity and inclusion through community education, and stewarding the environment through the re-use of textile supplies. Stitch Buffalo believes that our Buffalo community is richer for its diversity, full of unique possibilities, and worth celebrating for its abundant talents and creativity while pursuing happiness, safety, and belonging.
Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper
Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper protects and restores WNY’s water and surrounding ecosystems. They work to protect clean water, restore the health of ecosystems, work to inspire economic growth and community connections.
Seneca and Iroquois National Museum and Onöhsagwë:de’ Cultural Center
The Seneca and Iroquois National Museum houses an extensive collection of Hodinöhsö:ni’ historical and traditionally designed decorative and everyday-use items and archaeological artifacts. SINM, along with the Seneca Nation Archives Department, are safe keepers of historical documents, including articles, special publications, historical and family photographs, and various multi-media productions regarding the Odöndowa’ga:’ and Hoddinöhsö:ni’. Located in Salamanca NY, they invite all to visit.
Buffalo Advocacy Team, Friends Committee on National Legislation
OPFM is supportive of Buffalo’s FCNL Advocacy Team and several members of the Meeting are active on the Team, lobbying with our Congress people for peace and justice. Buffalo AT is one of over 150 FCNL Advocacy Teams across the US. Currently the FCNL AT focus in 2024 is on reining in Pentagon’s Unfunded Priorities Wish Lists through support of the Streamline Pentagon Budgeting Act. We have also lobbied for a Ceasefire in the Israel Gaza conflict. Last year, in 2023, the focus was on peacebuilding through Congressional appropriations for the Complex Crises Fund, the Genocide Prevention Fund, and the Reconciliation Fund.
The Buffalo AT has met in recent months with local offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and Representative Langworthy as well as joining other NY State Teams in lobbying with DC offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand.
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For further information, Google the organization or ask a member of Orchard Park Friends Meeting.
Orchard Park Friends Meeting 