The Daily Bulletin Archive

By Phyllis Camesano

Proof that it takes a village, legions of volunteers and service-learning students from Buffalo State College are helping the beleaguered Asarese-Matters Youth Center achieve its vision of being a safe afterschool haven for at-risk youths to learn and play.

The center, located on Rees Street adjacent to the Buffalo State College campus, serves about 300 youths, ages 8 to 18, each week. Nearly half the young people who frequent the center in the summer are considered at-risk as they are passed from one relative’s or friend’s home to another. Many are newly arrived refugees who speak little English, indicative of the more than 70 languages spoken on the West Side.

The Asarese Youth Center was established in 1989. It is named in honor of Ottaviano “Tovie” Asarese and Alona Matters. Asarese founded and sponsored countless West Side sports teams through his Royal Printing Shop, which he still operates on Grant Street. Matters was a community activist who championed the need for a West Side youth center and served on the building committee.

Starting in fall 2005, Buffalo State Volunteer and Service-Learning Center (VSLC) students and faculty have been working with the community and the center’s staff to improve the building, programming, and safety. More than 15 service-learning classes have been involved in the revitalization of the center.

“What surprises me most is that people haven’t given up,” said director Mike Milovich. At the helm for 21 years, Milovich has championed and guided the center as it has moved between city and county ownership, often falling off nearly everyone’s radar.

In 2006, Buffalo State College increased its involvement and, working with Milovich, provided the momentum for continued change. Under the direction of Marian Deutschman, interim director of the College and Community Partnerships Office (CCP), and Gary Welborn, associate professor and Sociology Department chair, a special taskforce was created to help address the center’s needs. The taskforce eventually became “The Friends of Asarese,” a group composed of campus and community stakeholders, chaired by Thomas Koller, senior associate director of intercollegiate athletics.

With Buffalo State support, more improvements were made. City and county officials began addressing leaks, poor lighting, and other repairs. New York State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt donated computers and started to secure funds for a new gym floor. Buffalo State social work and psychology students provided tutoring. Based on input from youths at the center, design students developed renderings and recommendations for new colors, furniture, and fixtures. The college’s Athletics Department donated paint, materials, and labor for new flooring in the art room.

These and other improvements have helped the appearance and safety of the facility; however, the biggest change has come from establishing formalized programming, largely through the work of the VSLC, which is housed in the Career Development Center at Buffalo State.

In particular, formalized sports programming has helped relieve tensions that often arise between ethnic groups. Most recently, Milovich explained, the neighborhood kids from Somalia started squaring off with the newly arrived kids from Burma. “Sports are the great equalizer,” he said. “A ball rolls across the gym floor and they all go for it.” To that end, there are now football and soccer nights, as well as travel meets at other recreation centers.

For girls, there are arts and crafts, including Girls Night on Thursdays, and bingo. But that wasn’t always the case. Two years ago, Buffalo State sociology students observed that the boys played sports while the girls sat on the bleachers. The students surveyed the youths and made recommendations for programming.

Throughout all these improvements, CCP associate Michele Graves has worked with the Alumni Association and the VSLC to conduct periodic drives for clothing and toiletries. Most recently, more than 200 people came to the center for free clothes, books, toys, and household items, many of them walking out in warm winter coats onto snowy streets.

“It’s a little sea change happening on the West Side,” says Susannah White, VSLC associate. “To a person walking by, the center doesn’t look like much. It’s what’s happening inside that’s better, and that’s what really matters.”