Impact

As the most comprehensive private foundation in the region, The John R. Oishei Foundation empowers our partners to drive change and transform lives throughout the community. Here are a few of their stories.

Say Yes Buffalo Alumni Giving Back After Gaining Much

Heart Love & Soul Expands Program to Address Growing Need in Niagara Fall

Daybreak Program in expanded facility pairs social services with basic needs for those in crisis

Collaboration in Chautauqua County Leads to Strong Starts for the County’s Youngest

Early intervention for expectant moms and young children leads to positive outcomes

Mobile Health Clinics Bring Primary Care to Students and Families

Mobile Health Clinics connect students with health and medical needs and so much more

Community Input Drives East Side Avenues Project

Funders Collaborative Complements New York State Investment in Revitalization Strategies

SACRA Builds for the Future

A unique workforce development program creates a pipeline of workers skilled in the construction trades

Young Audiences and Say Yes Partner to Engage Families

Programs move to an online format in fun and meaningful way to keep kids engaged and connected during pandemic shut down

Collaboration Key in Quickly Addressing COVID-19 Needs

Oishei Foundation a Founding Member of the WNY COVID-19 Community Response Fund, Contributing Staff Resources and $2 Million

Explore & More Works Hard to Welcome Everyone

Explore & More, The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Children’s Museum has welcomed more than 100,000 people to the waterfront attraction since opening last spring with a focus on bringing children and families together for play - including those with developmental or learning disabilities.

Ensuring Services are Accessible is a Team Effort

Mobile Safety-Net Team Collaborates with Catholic Charities to Host Hubs
to Connect Residents with Services

Private High School Students Participate in Diversity Leadership Conference

Nearly 200 students, representing a diversity of ethnic backgrounds from 13 local private high schools, chose to participate in the full-day conference designed to help students better understand issues of DEI and the role that they can take to help everyone feel a sense of belonging.

Giving Kids a Place to Feel Safe, Be Active

A new facility that promotes physical activity and offers a safe afterschool space is welcome in a neighborhood that has been neglected. 

Building Relationships has Fueled The Foundry’s Growth

An initial idea to lease space and share it with other craftsmen in an Eastside warehouse has evolved into a community where entrepreneurship meets education that is attracting attention, funding and awards.

Vets Find Community and Voice through Odyssey Project

For many veterans, returning home from the battlefield can be a difficult transition with few loved ones understanding the trauma they have gone through. All too often, this results in strained relationships, addiction, PTSD, depression and more.

EdCo Launches DEI initiative with 3 Day Conference for Private High School Teachers and Administrators

The multi-year effort to create diverse, equitable and inclusive schools is unique in that it includes collaboration among competing local private high schools

Collaboration Fuels New Solutions in Fight Against Opioid Overdose Crisis

In the mid-2010s as the opioid crisis was beginning to take hold and opioid overdose deaths were climbing, most emergency rooms treated overdose patients as they always had: stabilize the patient and discharge them with some phone numbers where they might seek help.

Healthy Corner Store Initiative Grows Into Its Role

Adding fresh fruit and other healthy options to neighborhood corner stores may seem like a smart and relatively simple prospect. For many small stores that serve urban neighborhoods, it may be trickier than it seems which is why the Healthy Corner Store Initiative (HCSI) was formed in 2016.

Gerard Place: Helping to Break the Cycle of Poverty

Gerard Place strives to break the cycle of poverty by providing support and housing for single-parent families who are experiencing homelessness, poverty and/or domestic/substance abuse, primarily in the Bailey-Delavan area. The agency provides services designed to empower individuals through education, employment, vocational training, life skill classes and counseling.

CRLS: Coordinated Refugee/Aslyee Legal Services Project

The Oishei Foundation was instrumental in the creation of the Coordinated Refugee/Asylee Legal Services Project (CRLS) that aims to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate legal services to Refugee and Asylee communities. Begun in 2014, the project grew out of Oishei’ s initial connection between Journey’s End Refugee Services and the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo to address a need for legal services for the refugee community.

Commitment to Support the Education Continuum

Since 1998, The John R. Oishei Foundation has awarded local eighth-grade students scholarships to attend private high schools in the area. Administered in partnership with the Education Collaborative of WNY (EdCo), the program was designed to provide financial assistance to talented and yet economically disadvantaged students who aspired to attend private high school. To date, the Foundation has funded scholarships for nearly 300 students, totaling $10 million in education funding.

 

Investing in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus

The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is one of Western New York’s most important success stories and the Oishei Foundation has been a significant contributor to capital projects, research and bridging connections between organizations, people and locations on Campus.

Jericho Road Community Health Center

The Oishei Foundation has been a partner and supporter of the Jericho Road Community Health Center from the earliest days of the health center’s existence. The Foundation helped the nascent medical clinic receive its Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) status by funding a consultant to guide the organization through the process and helping them meet and document a stringent set of requirements.

Using Comedy to Drive Economic Development with the National Comedy Center

With the support of the Oishei Foundation of more than $2.7 million, The National Comedy Museum opened in 2018 to rave reviews as the first state-of-the-art museum dedicated to telling the vital story of comedy in America.

Impact Archive

726 Exchange Street, Suite 510
Buffalo, NY 14210 USA

T 716 856 9490
F 716 856 9493
info@oishei.org

The John R. Oishei Foundation is an entirely separate entity from the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and we are unable to answer any inquiries made to the Children’s Hospital, The Children’s Hospital Foundation or Kaleida Health. To contact the hospital, please click here.

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