The Western New York ethnic communities are a rich part of our heritage and make us who we are.  The Community Heritage Resources (formerly Community Heritage Sheets) project was started in 1995 as a collaboration between the DHP and several community organizations. Heritage sheets can be valuable tools for libraries, teachers and visitors to the area as well as members of each ethnic community.

The concept for the Community Heritage Resources was to develop an informational piece containing a brief history of the ethnic group’s origins and settlement in this region, location of research collections documenting the group, historic sites to visit, contemporary places to eat and shop, radio programs, newspapers, organizations and other resources. 

Currently available are the Polish-American (Maintained by the Polish Union of America) Community Heritage Resources. They can be copied and distributed through your library or school or historical society.  Irish-American and Latino/Hispanic Community Resources were developed but are no longer available.

The DHP supports efforts to document ethnic and other social/cultural groups that are important to the history of this region and is open to suggestions from other groups to develop Heritage Resources for their communities.  If interested, contact Heidi Bamford, DHP Regional Archivist.