Buffalo

489 Ellicott, Suite 40 Buffalo, NY 14203 (716) 842-6320

Hours: Monday to Friday, from 8:30AM to 4PM

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ceobuffalo@ceoworks.org

Partnership Contact

Cerise Sutton

Site Director (Vocational Lead)

csutton@ceoworks.org

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The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Buffalo provides immediate, effective, and comprehensive employment services exclusively to people recently released from incarceration. CEO’s program supports participants in gaining the workplace skills and confidence needed for successful transitions to stable, productive lives. We are dedicated to ensuring that justice-impacted job seekers have opportunities to achieve socioeconomic mobility.

CEO Buffalo opened in 2009.

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CEO Updates:

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March 19, 2025

Spectrum News 1

Advocates push for passage of Reentry Assistance Bill to help formerly incarcerated people afford to rebuild

Advocates in New York for the formerly incarcerated are pushing for the passage of the Reentry Assistance Bill, which aims to provide more monetary support to people reentering society after being in prison.

December 5, 2024

NY.gov

Training New Yorkers for Good Paying Jobs of the Future: Governor Hochul Announces More Than $15.5 Million Awarded Through the Office of Strategic Workforce Development

Governor Kathy Hochul announced the New York State Office of Strategic Workforce Development has awarded more than $15.5 million in additional grants to support five projects across Upstate New York. Funding will help CEO to expand its successful construction pre-apprenticeship training for justice-impacted New Yorkers, increasing capacity in Buffalo, and piloting the program in Albany and Rochester.

May 17, 2024

Yahoo! News

NY would pay ex-inmates $2,550 after prison under bill to aid transition, curb recidivism

New York could give former inmates up to $2,550 after they leave prison under a pending bill meant to help them pay for food and rent while they seek jobs and stability. Advocacy groups backing the bill plan to rally at the Capitol in Albany on Monday to push for its passage in the last three weeks of this year's legislative session. The proposal was first introduced in the Senate a year ago and remains in committee in both that chamber and the Assembly.

August 17, 2023

Buffalo Next

Buffalo Next: Uncovering talent in a tight job market

McClam was part of a recent Buffalo Niagara Partnership discussion about cultivating “hidden talent.” The speakers agreed that employers can find good people to hire, if they know where to look for them.

July 8, 2021

Yamirca Vazquez on Gotham Gazette

Opinion: Key Fixes for New York’s Broken Parole System Await the Governor’s Signature

It wasn’t the eight months of military-style, intense shock incarceration that finally broke me; it was my parole officer. After my incarceration at Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility for non-violent offenders in Brocton, New York, I quickly realized I was living in constant fear of reincarceration. My parole officer had issued strict conditions such as travel limitations and unreasonable curfews, which prevented me from getting to work on time. There were incessant home visits, often at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. I was convinced my parole officer was scrutinizing my every move, just waiting for a reason to issue a technical parole violation.

November 6, 2025

Tiffany Elder

New York Stories of Apprenticeship and Determination

Every November, New York State Apprenticeship Month honors the tradespeople who build our cities, power our homes, and shape the state’s future. For many, apprenticeship isn’t just a career pathway — it’s a fair chance to start again with purpose and pride.

November 4, 2025

Ryan M. Moser

Felix Finds a Career Through a Pre-Apprenticeship in Buffalo

Every morning at dawn, Felix catches a ride to work with a coworker, hops out of the pick-up truck, and gazes across the 20,000-acre expanse in front of him, in awe of the open land and sheer size of the solar panel farm in Buffalo, New York.

November 3, 2025

Tiffany Elder

How Eric Built a New Life in the Union

When people talk about Eric, they describe him as a go-getter who brings energy, humor, and a deep sense of connection wherever he goes. A natural people person. But behind his lively spirit is a man who’s overcome more than most. Raised in the projects of Buffalo, New York, Eric grew up watching his mother struggle and endured a turbulent home life with an abusive stepfather. Sports became his outlet — football, basketball, baseball — and a glimpse of what discipline and teamwork could offer.

October 31, 2025

Tiffany Elder

Sterling’s Union Story: Brotherhood, Solar Panels, and Self-Discovery

Sterling came of age in Brooklyn during the storm of the 1980s drug epidemic — a time when life moved fast and turned hard. “People changed,” he says. “Some made it out. Some didn’t.” After losing both parents at a young age, Sterling stepped in to help his grandmother look out for his three younger siblings. He ended up in street life, thinking it was a way out of hardship, but he bumped his head a few times and learned it wasn’t. By 13, he was tagging along with older guys — locally and out of town — pulled into hustles that offered fast money and later served time.

September 3, 2025

Tiffany Elder

From Buffalo’s Streets to a High-Paying Career in the Trades

Within his first week home, he paid for OSHA 10 training out of pocket from the $200 gate money, unaware that the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) could have provided it at no cost. Soon after, his probation officer referred him to CEO Buffalo, where staff told him about the union pre-apprenticeship program. He decided to give it a shot.

June 27, 2025

Isidoro Rodriguez

From Concrete Foundations to Career Goals: Leon’s Union Apprenticeship Story

Leon is wholeheartedly committed to building a career in construction. Despite the rigorous demands he faces daily on the job, he continues to push forward. As a newly accepted and paid apprentice with the Buffalo Local 210 Labor Union, Leon trains under the guidance of an experienced journeyman, learning the complexities of both physical and technical labor in real time.

January 18, 2024

Pre-Apprenticeship Graduations for New York State

On December 13, 2023, Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) celebrated two pre-apprenticeship graduations in both Buffalo and New York City. The classes are pathways to high-paying union careers in construction free of cost to justice-impacted individuals.