Liz Smith and her colleagues at the Western New York Worker Center hope
that their program is the first of many programs to come. The Worker Center
sponsored the first leadership and workers rights training session Feb. 19 and
Feb. 21 for refugees at Our Lady of Hope Church on Lafayette Avenue. Graduates of the
program are part of a growing immigrant population that is reshaping the
economic and cultural landscape of the West Side. By Ryan Esguerra and Nicholas Malahosky