Each year Leadership Saratoga classes break into groups and work on a project outside of their regularly scheduled Leadership sessions.  The projects are intended to create impact in Saratoga County. Saratoga County Chamber member organizations apply to have their project accepted.  The Class of 2023 projects were as follows:

The Academy for Lifelong Learning is a self-funded, nonprofit, membership organization providing adult educational courses and social activities. Most of our members are retired seniors. Due to COVID, we went from 500 members to 300. Some adapted to Zoom courses, but are now Zoomed out. Others prefer Zoom because of mobility and geographic considerations. This fall, we are getting back in some classrooms but some of our members are still COVID shy.

Challenge: Need to connect to our senior members by providing hybrid learning and social experiences both in-person and virtually. We’d like to be able to live Zoom or record in-person courses and activities.

CAPTAIN Human Services

Reliable and affordable transportation is a crucial need for Saratoga County, because there is very little public transit, which has created numerous issues that sustains income inequality, health disparity and wellness, food insecurity, and systemic exclusion of marginalized and less fortunate populations. Transportation is an overarching systemic issue that demands attention, focus, and effort to improve the quality of life for the entire community.

The proposal to the Leadership Saratoga Class is to assist the community-wide effort to successfully launch a
collaborative approach to increase access to reliable and affordable transportation options for low-income individuals and households, senior citizens, and other community members.

Friends of the Saratoga Springs Public Library has long benefited from a generous community of members, donors, and book shop patrons as well as a committed corps of nearly 60 volunteers. The realities of COVID, however, forced the Friends to close its book shop for months and the organization was forced to rethink how it achieves its mission. In-line with this refreshed, forward-looking mindset, the Friends have hired its first Executive Director, launched a new logo, and formalized its relationship with the Saratoga Book Festival. With growth comes new challenges, and therefore the Friends is seeking the help from Leadership Saratoga to present 1 – 3 formal plans for increasing memberships, driving brand awareness, and/or growing our fundraising. 

Wellspring 

In Saratoga County, domestic violence is: the #2 violent crime, the leading cause of family homelessness,
and the primary cause of homicide. Wellspring assists ~1,000 survivors of relationship and sexual abuse
each year. Emergency shelter, safety planning and protection orders are critical services. But often the reason a domestic violence victim stays in the abusive relationship- especially if there are small children- is that (s)he wouldn’t’ be able to provide for basic needs on just one income; domestic violence and poverty disproportionately affect women! To escape abuse, domestic violence victims need a job. Many are trapped in low paying service jobs because they need income in order to leave the abuse, but lack the education, work skills, or freedom of schedule to pursue jobs with better pay and career growth potential. They struggle for years living just one unexpected bill away from not being able to pay the rent or buy groceries. AND, businesses in Saratoga County are struggling to find employees which impacts their profits. 

Our vision of a workforce development program is multifaceted: 1)collaboration with the business sector to address their needs 2) working with clients to identify interests and aptitude to select a career growth path and providing targeted training for employment readiness, and 3) assessing participant ‘life needs’ and addressing obstacles to employment success so they are prepared for these life-changing jobs.