Embracing Disruption 3
Meet the CohortPublished September, 2024
The Gifford Foundation has selected five organizations to be part of its 2024 cohort for the third installment of its Embracing Disruption program. Leadership teams from the Erie Canal Museum, Redhouse Arts Center, Salt City Harvest Farm, Syracuse Habitat for Humanity, and Vera House will come together this fall to embark on a 15-month journey to building stronger, more resilient organizational structures.
With missions that span arts, history, housing, and agriculture, this class of Embracing Disruption will bring diverse perspectives to many of the challenges facing non-profit organizations today. Each will work one-on-one with a consultant who will guide them through a self-assessment, planning process, and capacity implementation period. By the completion of the program, the selected organizations will improve their ability to help those they serve and more capably respond to unpredictable obstacles keeping them from implementing their work.
Embracing Disruption is implemented in partnership with Leadership Greater Syracuse, the Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute, and local non-profit consultants. Please find them listed below.
Read on to learn more about the selected organizations.
The Erie Canal Museum was established in 1962 in the last remaining weighlock building in the United States. It engages the public in the story of the Erie Canal’s transformative impacts on peoples and places in the past, present, and
future. Its knowledgeable team are stewards and interpreters of Erie Canal-related materials and heritage. The Museum endeavors to be a leader and partner, serving as a vibrant hub for Central New York, and inspiring the public to critically engage with history as a step toward becoming thoughtful community citizens.
Redhouse Arts Center, founded in 2004, brings experiential performing arts to Syracuse through theatrical presentations. The artistic and educational pillars of Redhouse seek to provide inclusive learning, creating career paths for
Central New York performing artists while providing thought-provoking theatrical performances which entertain, inform, and engage local audiences. Redhouse brings its programs into schools and community forums to perform for thousands of school-aged children each year. Many of these students make their way into the Redhouse main stage productions, furthering their arts education.
Salt City Harvest Farm (SCHF) grows food, culture, and community through the cross-cultural exchange of food traditions with access to farmland, education, and economic
opportunity. SCHF started as a project that grew out of Syracuse Grows community gardens. Many of the New American growers that resettle in Central New York (CNY) have a history of connection to land. A decade ago, community gardeners began requesting opportunities for larger parcels of land. With many refugees and immigrants new to the area finding it hard to acquire fresh produce specific to their countries, the founders of SCHF saw an opportunity to assist the community and got to work. SCHF works to transform the CNY community by creating opportunities with New Americans to grow foods precious to their traditions and bring together cultures from around the world to the benefit of all CNY.
Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has helped over 46 million people build or improve the place they call home.
Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope. No family should have to choose between having a decent roof over their heads and competing needs like food, medical care, and heat in the winter. But reality does not always reflect what ‘should be.’ Syracuse Habitat for Humanity (SHFH) works to eliminate poverty housing and move people out of the cycle of poverty by building decent, safe, affordable houses in our community. Homeownership is one of the most effective ways to get out of poverty and become independent. Habitat homes are sold with an affordable mortgage, making homeownership a possibility for families who otherwise could not own a home due to their income level.
Vera House, Inc., is a trauma-informed, licensed provider of residential and non-residential domestic violence services through the NYS Office of Children and Family Services.
It is a NYS Department of Health-certified rape crisis program with nearly 50 years of experience serving victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence and elder abuse, and other crime victims. Staff are trained and qualified to respond compassionately to victims of domestic and sexual violence and other forms of abuse. Victim services include crisis response, information and referral, systems advocacy, assistance with compensation claims, critical emotional support, counseling, and therapy. Its mission is to prevent, respond to, and partner to end domestic and sexual violence and other forms of abuse. Vera House, Inc.’s vision is a world free of abuse and violence.

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