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AMHERST, N.Y. – The nonprofit organization’s role in economic development and community building will be discussed by Rahwa Ghirmatzion, director of programs at People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo), at the opening event in the 2015-16 Ì¨ÍåSwag College Nancy Haberman Gacioch Entrepreneurship Lecture Series.

Ghirmatzion will talk about social entrepreneurism and the work being done by PUSH to revitalize Buffalo’s West Side at the lecture scheduled for 5 p.m. Sept. 23 in the Wick Campus Center Alumni Lounge. The lecture is free and open to the public. 

For more than 13 years, Ghirmatzion has worked with community-based organizations throughout Western New York that promote community development. She has focused primarily on underserved and underrepresented communities to ensure that alternative voices are fostered and encouraged to participate in building a more equitable and engaged community.

PUSH is a local membership-based community organization that works to create strong neighborhoods with quality affordable housing and decrease the rate of housing abandonment by reclaiming empty houses, and to develop neighborhood leaders capable of gaining community control over the development process and planning for the future of the neighborhood.

The 2015-16 Nancy Haberman Gacioch Entrepreneurship Lecture Series, which is sponsored by the Ì¨ÍåSwag Entrepreneurship Program, will feature several community entrepreneurs who recognize the potential that exists in the region’s neighborhoods through revitalization efforts, new programming, job creation, or collaborative endeavors.