Raby Ba’s life comes full circle when he makes his way back to West Side Community Services.
Ba moved from Senegal to the West Side of Buffalo in 2006. As a preteen learning how to adjust to a new city and culture, he played basketball in the center’s gym, became involved with its summer programs and even received an award for his leadership skills.
It’s been hard to keep him away ever since.
Now project coordinator of Independent Health Foundation’s Good for the Neighborhood program, Ba works with more than 40 community organizations to bring free health and wellness tools to eight sites around Western New York – including West Side Community Services.
There weren’t a lot of resources in Ba’s native West Africa, so making an impact on not just one person, but entire families that may be struggling, is what keeps him coming back.
“Some people don't open up about what they're going through,” Ba says, “so we try to just be the voice for them and try to provide certain things that we know they're going to need without them having to ask.”
Initiated in 2006, Good for the Neighborhood is one of the longest-running programs at Independent Health Foundation, which was founded 30 years ago to enhance the health and wellness of Western New Yorkers. The Good for the Neighborhood program is one of several initiatives that support everything from youth soccer to healthy eating.
There are about 40 Good for the Neighborhood events throughout the year that bring free health screenings, farmers markets, nutrition classes, fitness programs and more to places where access to healthcare is limited – such as East and West Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Lackawanna, Akron and South Wales.
The goal is to empower communities to take control of their health by seeing their doctor, eating right, being active and living a smoke-free lifestyle – all while having a little fun.
“It's amazing now, because everybody who comes here wants to be here, and they're happy to be here,” Ba says. “They see other people, socialize, network – it's not just the health aspect of it but also the coming together.”
Hosting Good for the Neighborhood events at local community centers and schools has helped Independent Health Foundation and its public and private partners build more than a decade worth of trust with a wide range of participants who often know staffers, vendors and each other by name.
“I love seeing people come back over and over again to get their health checked and to see how they're doing, physically and then both mentally and socially,” says West Side Community Services executive director Crystal Selk. "We've just really tried to deepen that trust so that we can continue to offer more and more opportunities for our neighbors to be healthy and well."
West Buffalo residents Mary Montez and Cindy Benintende are two of the many longtime participants who have taken advantage of one service in particular – the blood pressure program – with Ba.
“He’s my buddy,” Benintende says. “He has been so good to me and reminding me each week to keep track of my blood pressure.”
"You learn about all the programs that you really don't know are out there,” Montez says of the additional information provided at events. "Since I've been coming, I've met a lot of people here and I know a lot of people, so it has created some friendships, which is nice."
The continued work of Independent Health Foundation and its commitment to changing lives is what inspires Ba to go to work each day as a project coordinator and as a recent addition to the West Side Community Services Board of Directors.
"We have some of the participants that come early and are the first ones here because they feel comfortable, like this is their event,” Ba says. “And when we plan it, we try to get them involved to see what they want to learn. Every time we come, we try to include something different.”
