(By Janice L. Habuda, Buffalo News)
From the former rectory and convent on its East Side campus to the numerous donated houses nearby, St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy has been steadily building a community for the people it serves.
Soon, the mission’s programs for at-risk single mothers and their children will become a village unto itself: Gospa Village, a secure compound of 12 single-family homes and a community center to be built on a block of mostly vacant lots now owned by the City of Buffalo.
“We feel really strongly women and children need a family setting,” said Amy Betros, who co-founded the mission with Norman S. Paolini Jr. in 1994.
“Some [women] just don’t know how to be mothers,” Betros said. “We can teach them and help them. We can help keep families together.
