[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 1133]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                  TRIBUTE TO MR. RICHARD R. BUERY, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSE E. SERRANO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, February 8, 2013

  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, as the Nation commemorates the 150th 
anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and observes the 50th 
anniversary of the March on Washington, I rise today to honor Mr. 
Richard R. Buery, Jr. The son of a retired New York City public school 
teacher and a retired lab manager, Richard was born and raised in the 
East New York section of Brooklyn, where he knew early on he wanted to 
level the playing field for the young men and women he played with 
growing up.
  As a freshman at Harvard University, he began to volunteer at an 
after-school program at a nearby public housing complex at Roxbury, 
Massachusetts. It was here during this summer experience where Richard 
began to see the opportunity and need to develop quality youth 
programming for underserved communities. After attending and graduating 
from Yale Law School, Richard worked as a staff attorney at the Brennan 
Center for Justice, and later became a law clerk to Judge John M. 
Walker, Jr. of the Federal Court of Appeals in New York City. Even with 
his success as an attorney he still felt the need to serve young people 
in underserved communities remained.
  Displeased with what was being offered as youth programming in East 
New York, in 2002, he co-founded and served as the Executive Director 
of Groundwork, Inc. His mission for the organization was clear, he 
wanted it to respectfully serve and support the young people in East 
New York in the manner that he believed his friends needed to have been 
supported when he was growing up. Under his leadership Groundwork grew 
to become a comprehensive youth development organization that served 
more than 3,000 youths and whose annual budget grew from $1 million to 
$6 million dollars.
  His success in the youth development world led to the Children's Aid 
Society selecting Buery in October 2009 as its tenth President and 
Chief Executive Officer. He is the first African American to lead the 
venerable New York charitable organization, whose mission is help 
children in poverty succeed and thrive. As the President and CEO, Mr. 
Buery has used his prior experience at Groundwork to enhance the 
development of the Children's Aid Society's Bronx flagship program--the 
Next Generation Center. Located in the 15th Congressional District the 
Next Generation Center is a community-based service and youth 
development program geared to provide the necessary social support 
mechanisms young men and women need to transition safely to adulthood. 
Many of the participants are Bronx at-risk youth who have aged out of 
the foster care system.
  The young men and women of the Bronx who participate in the 
programming provided at the Next Generation Center know they have an 
ally in Richard R. Buery, Jr. They know he will not quit on them, label 
them or turn them away.
  Mr. Speaker, it fills me with hope as I reflect on Mr. Buery's 
service to the residents of New York City and to the constituents of 
the 15th Congressional District, that we have an enormously talented 
leader whose commitment to changing the lives of those young men and 
women has no boundaries. I ask you and my colleagues to join me in 
recognizing the past, present and future accomplishments of Mr. Richard 
R. Buery, Jr.

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