Building Brighter Futures (BBF) has been providing high quality school-based social-emotional supports and expanded learning programs for over seventeen years. BBF programming serves over 2,000 students and their families in grades K-12 at over 25 school and community based sites. The Department includes the following programs: 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Extended School Day/Violence Prevention program, Closing the Gap, Title 1 Supplemental Programming at the Erie County Detention Center, Buffalo Public School District Title 1 Extended Learning, Erie County Primetime and Positive Youth Development programs.
BBF is designed to strengthen children, families and communities by promoting academic achievement, positive youth development, healthy life choices, and family literacy. The mission of BBF is “To enhance Students’ academic achievement, social-emotional development and to foster lifelong interests in the arts, recreation, and other areas by providing high quality in school and out of school opportunities that keep children safe, help them achieve, and that meaningfully engage and support adult family members in helping their children and families succeed.”
BBF is designed with a common vision and the shared goals of 1) providing opportunities for academic enrichment and remediation designed to meet the individual student’s needs, and NYS Learning Standards 2) Offer students a broad array of additional enrichment, recreational, positive youth development, health & wellness and social-emotional services.
Activities are age appropriate, designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program, promote a college and career ready culture and reflect the needs of participating students. BBF programming is rooted in the delivery of strong social-emotional learning opportunities that align with NY State’s Social-emotional Guidelines and include evidence-based curriculums.
BBF has trained staff and curriculums such as Second Step, Girl’s Circle, Please Stand Up Against Violence, Skills Streaming, Coping Power, Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools CBITS, Youth Court, an alternative to suspensions after-school model and other programs that support Districts Positive Behavioral Intervention Systems initiative (PBIS) and/or Multi-tiered System of Supports.
For more information on the BBF program, please click here.