Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.179 | feat. Ruth Ann Riposa from ProNexus & Alyssa Johnston from GiGi's Playhouse

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Good News York: GiGi’s Playhouse Syracuse Expands Free Programs, Seeks $50K to Sustain Growth Host Noah Chrysler interviews Alyssa Johnston, Executive Director of GiGi’s Playhouse Syracuse, and Ruthann Raposo of ProNexus and interim board president. They explain GiGi’s mission to provide free educational and therapeutic programs for people with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, including math and literacy tutoring, speech therapy, kitchen skills, and GiGiFit from ages 0 through adulthood, largely run by volunteers. They describe the Playhouse layout that fosters family connection, text groups that extend peer support, and tangible impact such as a child told he might never read who began reading and empowered his mom and school with tutoring methods. GiGi’s programming has grown 40% year-over-year to over 1,000 hours monthly, prompting a $50,000 fundraising campaign. ProNexus supports nonprofits via retained search, interim leadership, and finance/accounting services. Website: gigisplayhouse.org/syracuse. 00:00 Reading Breakthrough Story 00:33 Welcome to Good News York 00:59 What Is GiGis Playhouse 02:25 Inside the Playhouse Tour 06:24 Community Impact and Growth 08:13 How ProNexus Supports GiGis 12:36 GiGis Origin and National Reach 14:08 Success Stories Across Ages 17:01 How to Interact Respectfully 19:29 Alyssas Personal Journey 21:06 How to Help and Donate 22:53 ProNexus Services and Hiring Fit 25:11 Final Thanks and Sponsor Plugs

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And because you're a listener, you get 20% off your first order. Just head to mood.com. That's M-O-O-D.com to get started. She asked the tutor, you know, do you think that he's going to be able to read? She really hadn't been given hope for that before. And we said, of course. Yeah, so he can read. So they got started with tutoring.

And throughout the course of the literacy tutoring and working with our tutor at the Syracuse Playhouse, he started reading on his own and identifying words. But more than that, she was able to teach mom what she was doing with him so that he was getting that from all sides, you know, in his education. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Good News York. My name is Noah Chrysler. Today I am with Ruth Ann and Alyssa. Ladies, welcome to the show.

Hi. Thank you. Absolutely. Go ahead and introduce yourselves. Hi. Am I looking at the camera? You can look anywhere you want. Yeah, down that camera's great. All right. Hi, I'm Ruth Ann Raposa. I'm the director of executive services with ProNexus. Hi, I'm Melissa Johnston. I'm the current executive director of Gigi's Playhouse, Syracuse. Beautiful. So which one do we want to get into first? Probably Gigi's first? Beautiful. So tell us about what Gigi's playhouse is.

So our mission is to provide free educational and therapeutic programming to people with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities. their families and the community. So we offer a wide variety of free programming to people across central New York. We have math and literacy tutoring, speech therapy. We have kitchen, Gigi's kitchen. It's like a kitchen skills class. We have Gigi Fit, which is zero right through adulthood. And that was designed by physical therapists to promote just healthier living in the people that we support.

And then we have a wide variety of other people. programs that touch on different topics like skill building socialization um if you can think it we probably provide it oh cool wonderful what do you do there like what is your function what is your day-to-day look like there everything yeah she's the uniform we're a very small staff of just two we are 99% volunteer run so between myself and the other staff that's at the at the playhouse we do everything so she focuses more on on the programs and operations side of things, managing the volunteers, running, scheduling the programming.

My job is more so the marketing, the outreach, connecting with donors, writing grants, trying to secure the long-term sustainability of our playhouse. Wonderful. So if somebody were to walk into the playhouse, what would they see? They would see, depending on the day, they would either see a very busy playhouse

full of people receiving, you know, whatever programs that we're providing. Or sometimes it's a little quieter and it's Karen and I trying to catch up from those busy days. We both have our offices right in the front of the playhouse. So the second you walk in, we hear that. We stand up. We go out and we greet you at the door. We see why you're there. And more often than not, we offer impromptu tours and just information about the playhouse.

Do a little bit of a tour right now for our viewers. If they were to walk into the playhouse, I think it's really cool how our playhouse is like. out to be fun and creative and also there's space for people to get individual tutoring. Can you give like almost a walkthrough for the people that are watching? Yeah. So when you walk in for a tour, we're going to start with just showing you who our founder is and why we exist and why we do what we do. And then we're going to show you our kind of like our community meeting space.

It's like a living room kind of set up. And it's designed that way to promote just like natural interaction with our families and the people that come into our playhouse. Behind that is our donor wall, so you get to see all of the people that believe in us, helped us get started, and continue to support us. As you venture into the playhouse, there's going to be a large community meeting space, a little stage area to have people practice being their best. And then we have a couple tutoring rooms, so people will go in there for the math and literacy tutoring, as well as our speech therapy programs. We have a kitchen full of different items for those kitchen classes. They usually bring those items out into the community space, so it's more like a teaching set up.

And then we have a very large gym that they participate for Gigi's Gigi Fit. And then we also have some open play toys and things like that in the gym. The beautiful thing about the way that it's laid out is if you're a family member and you're bringing a loved one there, even if you're a support person in that person's life, you're bringing someone there to benefit from the programs offered at the playhouse that day. It's naturally set up so that caretakers, family members, friends of people with disabilities can sit and interact with each other. Sometimes there are parents, especially parents that maybe have a younger child that feel isolated. They don't have their community or they don't have their network established yet. And they feel alone.

They feel alone in what they're experiencing, some of the struggles, some of the challenges. The beautiful thing beyond the people that are receiving services at GGs, is the community that it builds for families and caretakers. It naturally evolves that way, just simply the layout of the playhouse itself. And again, it's right there in Driver's Village. So it's pretty convenient to access. It's kind of tucked away, though, so it's not as visible to the community. But once you're inside, it naturally, just by the layout, develops its own networking community.

But even further than that, we keep people connected by their program. So if we have, let's say, 10 families that are signed up for elemental people. which is language music and our peeps. And that's our littlest littles. There's zero to five. They do a music program every other Saturday morning. They follow that up with G.G. Fit. But we have text groups that we create with each of those, all of those families that are together for those.

So we can send out reminders and updates. But it's become more than that. We recently have had families that will just say, hey, I'm seeing this out of my child lately and I'm not sure what to do or what provider to go to. and it's created this like such a natural support group that's as easy as to access is by texting your phone. Like it's incredible the way that works. And then when they see each other, they can continue to follow up and they have those conversations. And no one's really alone.

So they can see what everybody else is doing. They can hear everybody else's stories. And they know that they are surrounded by a community. Wonderful. Wonderful. I think you guys have touched on this a little bit. But it sounds like Gigi's Playhouse is making a different. in the community? Can you explain a little bit, you know, what that difference in as tangible terms as possible, right?

Like what does that difference actually look like? And if Gigi's Playhouse didn't exist, you know, how would that impact the community? We provide a judgment-free zone of acceptance and practicing to be your best so that you can go out into your world and into your community and you can feel confident and supported and, oh, I know how to do that. I did that at Gigi's two weeks ago or meeting people. We have so many people in and out of the playhouse that then Syracuse is small, right? So they go out under their community and they're like, oh, I saw you a couple weeks ago at Gigi's. And then they can form those relationships and those conversations. Our footprint has significantly expanded. Let's talk a little bit about where we were a year or two ago and where we are today.

So from this time last year to now, well, from this time last year to December, we grew our programming by 40%. So we are providing 40% more hours per month than we ever have. We are providing to almost 100 more families annually than we were before. Since December till now, we are on track for another 40% growth. We are averaging over 1,000 hours per month of programming that's provided to our friends with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities, which is incredible to see that just shows the need that the community has for a place like GGs. But with, you know, the increase in hours comes an increase in program supplies, operations, and everything that goes around building those programs and keeping them successful.

Cool. Wonderful. Well, cool. So we also talked a little bit before we started rolling here about pro-nexus. Can you tell me about pro-nexas and what you guys do? Sure. Okay. So the chapter here, I'm going to go back before Alyssa, actually.

The chapter here in Syracuse really recognized the need of the community for more of Gigi's and what Gigi's offers. And so the decision was made at the board level. Honestly, they were running with one paid employee prior to Alyssa coming on board. And Kara really has always organized programs and maintained scheduling and managed the volunteers and has done a wonderful job. But they knew in order to increase the footprint here in Central New York and to further meet the need of our community, they needed to bring in more of an executive director type. So my firm ProNexis, we do a lot of work in the nonprofit space. My service line really is geared and tailored towards nonprofits. And one of the things that we do, one of the services that we

offer is retain search. So if you have a C-suite position, a CEO, chief operating officer, even a director of HR, IT, director of operations type role, we do a lot in the retained search space. So I had reached out to the board president of GGs, and I said, hey, you know, and she goes, oh, you know, what we're looking for is really a unicorn. We need an executive director that's going to be able to come in and oversee the playhouse, be able to write for grants, maintain donor relations, you know, secure funding. We really need, you know, someone that can do the marketing and, you know, improve our social media. I'm like, you need, you know, we really need to find a unicorn.

So pro nexus did the retain search. We found Alyssa, and obviously Alyssa has been able to naturally transition into that role of executive director. She's got significant background in the nonprofit space and working with people with disabilities and has a remarkable career there. I got hooked. You know, ProNexus really does a lot in the nonprofit space. We do a lot of work with leadership in nonprofits and the non-a-test finance and accounting space. And I just, I kind of really, I got chills up and down my arm the first time I heard the history of GGs and really learned about the mission. And so the board president, you know, she was terming out and she said, oh, I want you come on the board, but she had ulterior motives in mind.

Mary Jo, if you're listening. And so they currently have me serving as the interim board president of GGs. And we're really, Alyssa and I are working hand in hand very much so to increase the opportunities that exist for people here in central New York. And in order to do that, we really need to secure the funding. you know, and make sure that we've got the infrastructure in place so we're sustainable for the next three to five years. So we are really, we're pounding the pavement right now, building up relationships. I think for me, I have got 25 years of experience in this space, right? I've worked for for-profit health care and nonprofits, even local county government. I promise you, until we did

the retained search through pro nexus for this position, I had never heard of Gigi's playhouse. So the opportunity even right now with you to be able to come on and do this podcast, there's such an opportunity that we have right now. We want it to be as brand recognized as McDonald's and a happy meal. We are such a support to families that are sometimes faced with their biggest fears, their largest challenges. We want to be able to say, you are welcome at GGs, your child, your loved one is welcome at GGs. This is the community that we are creating here in Central New York that is so special, unique, and different than anything else that exists. We want it to be a natural household name for families here in Central New York. So between the branding of GGs here in Central New York and then making sure we're securing funding to be sustainable into the future, that is what we're doing right now.

We're pounding the pavement and we're getting that out there, getting that message out there right now. If you were to walk into GGs, especially on a day that there is programming happening, you're hooked. immediately hooked walking into Gigi's. The first time I walked in, I was truly in shock at just how happy and welcoming and accepting. I don't think I've ever walked into a space that felt like that. And it was just truly incredible to feel to be a part of, to continue to be a part of, and to promote and advocate for right now. Here's what makes Gigi special.

Gigi's was started by a mom who became pregnant, found out that she was going to give birth to a daughter with Down syndrome, that is the starting point of GGs. And you feel that when you walk into a playhouse. You feel that, that it's developed by a mom, by a family member. Let's be honest. Buying cannabis shouldn't be complicated, sketchy or low quality. That's why I want to tell you about mood.com. That's M-O-O-O-D.com.

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It's cannabis you can trust, delivered discreetly, and ready to elevate your mood. And because you're a listener, you get 20% off your first order. Just head to mood.com. That's M-O-O-O-D-com to get started. by a loving mom who wanted better for her daughter. I'm a mom. Clearly, Alyssa's going to be a mom shortly herself. And when you're a parent, it doesn't matter the level of ability that your child has. It doesn't matter what they're capable of, what their challenges are.

You want the best for your child. And when you walk into a playhouse, you know that it's created by people that want the best for their child, regardless of ability, regardless of diagnosis. You're surrounded by that. And there's something very inspiring by that. We're really excited. We've got mom. We've got Nancy and Gigi, you know, coming to the playhouse next week, actually.

We're doing a VIP luncheon. We've got some really good things going on there. But we're really excited to have Nancy and Gigi come into our playhouse. We have grown. I mean, Gigi's has grown. We've got 62 chapters right now across the country. We've got about a dozen more in development. and we even offer services virtually internationally.

So we're continuing to grow. Our real goal, though, for between Alyssa and I, securing our future here in Syracuse and in central New York. Absolutely. Very cool. I think that people really connect with, like, individualized stories and things. So do you guys have a story of working with someone from the area, right? And maybe they've come in, you know, and you kind of worked with them,

and you've seen them kind of change and progress as they've been a member of a G. Can you share my favorite story? there was a mom and again I again I'm my kids are 18 and 19 so I'm on the other end of it we had a mom come in recently this is a true story as of this year where you know she was told that her child probably would never be able to read to read yeah can you share that story yeah so she came into the playhouse to receive to just to talk about literacy tutoring for her son subby and we she asked the tutor you know do you think that he's going to be able to read. She really hadn't been given hope for that before. And we said, of course. I mean, yes,

so he can read. So they got started with tutoring. And throughout the course of the literacy tutoring and working with our tutor at the Syracuse Playhouse, he started reading on his own and identifying words. But more than that, she was able to teach mom what she was doing with him. And then mom was able to turn around and go bring that to the school and teach the school what was happening with him so that he was getting that from all sides, you know, in his education. And not that long ago, he asked his mom if he could read her a story out of the blue. And those were just words that she didn't think that she would hear. So to have your child who you didn't think would be able to read at first, be able to say,

hey, mom, can I read you a story tonight? I mean, how do you not like break down? You know, that's just incredible. That's very powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that. Yeah. Another story, kind of like more on the other end of it, right? Because we, you know, obviously we have a lot of fun with the children that we work with and the kids.

That's, you know, if you look at our social media, we have a lot of pictures of that age group. But again, really focusing on the lifespan of how we serve people. You know, I've been a part of some of the adult fit classes that happen. Those are a lot of fun. But how do we equip people to be able to, accomplish across any desire or dream that they have. We have a young lady who has received programming through GGs and also is a board member. She sits alongside me on the board and is absolutely critical in each of the board meetings,

the decision making that happens, the voting that happens. Event planning. The plan, event planning significant. So it's not just in the service recipient side of it. It's truly how we make decisions and, you know, through the, through the board level, how people are represented, how the future of GGs is formed, people have a voice and a say all the way through to board leadership.

It's significant. Cool. Wonderful. So for most individuals, you know, is there any advice that you have for people when they are interacting with people with disabilities? Like, are there things that, like, they should know, like things that they should keep in mind, specific ways to, you know, act?

I mean, I don't know. Any advice that you have for people to, to make people feel welcome, you know, and accepted, anything like that. There are people just like you and I are. They're individuals with individual likes, dislikes, strengths, and you start talking to them just like you would talk to you and, you know, to anybody that's in this room or anybody that you go out and see. And then from there, you can tailor how your response is and what you're doing.

But always treats anybody in anybody, disability or not, should be treated with respect and dignity and treat it as the individual that they are. Sure. I have my own personal reasons beyond GGs for the work in the nonprofit space. And I have my cousin, he's, you know, adult now, but, you know, he was adopted and they discovered pretty early on that he, you know, had some significant disabilities. He was diagnosed with autism, with TBI. And, you know, the thing about Phillip,

you know, while he may have challenges here, he's extremely gifted in horseback riding. He's competed in won shows. And not, you know, and competing against peers in his age group, right? And not just in a space with other people with disabilities. He's competed at state fairs. He's competed in a variety of places and, you know, ribboned out and done very well. So if you're looking at and interacting with someone like my cousin, Philip, you're going to

Just like, you know, we were talking today with the young lady at the front, and we talked about her photography, and we talked about her daughter and what interests her. It would be no different with someone like my cousin Philip. You would pick up on, you know, he's interested in horses and let him talk to you all about his interest in horses, his success is there. And I think that's the biggest thing. All of us want to be known for our successes. I'm very proud of my career professionally. Alyssa Carey is the title of executive director. She's going to be a mom soon.

You know, and I'm sure you have things that you identify with that you're proud of personal. and professionally. You always want to be able to connect on what really matters to people and be able to jump into conversation that way. And I think if we all keep that in mind, like Alyssa said, you're interacting with another human being. It allows that to happen naturally and with grace. Beautiful. Alisa, can you share a little bit about your personal story as well and how it kind of impacts the work that you're doing? Yeah. So I actually, I mean, going back to college, you know, if you get to college, you're not sure what you want to do or any of that. So I, at first, I was a chemistry major. If you know or now, it would know. I liked it then. And then it was boring. And I was

like, no, I need, like, I need interaction. I need people. So I fell into this career through an internship and just absolutely fell in love with it. And the people that I, I get to interact with every day. Like it just, I, there's days where I walk into work and I'm like, I cannot believe that this is like my job. And the people that you get to interact with and the stories that you get to hear and just the, it just is a feel good situation. I got started in nonprofits and working in group homes, residential group homes and then day programs and a variety of other types of programs. And then I stumbled across Gigi's when they were looking for this position. And I, just couldn't believe the feeling that I got walking through the doors, like this is home.

And it's weird to like think of that in a workplace, but it really feels like so much more than a workplace that, you know, you just go to every day. It feels like a place where you can be accepted just as you are and you want to do your best for them. You want to show them the best and you want to keep places like Gigi's going. Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, guys, you so much for coming on. How can people help you individually? Maybe Gigi and then and then with your business. Yeah. So we obviously always with our fundraising and our donor relations and connecting us with their networks if there's people that feel like our mission really aligns with them. We also have events that people can participate in. We have, we're always looking for

board positions as people are terming off. Committees, just volunteering in the playhouse for any of the programming, tutoring. You can walk through the door and have no tutoring experience. We will teach you. And we will teach you how to be a tutor, and you can get started that way. No experience needed to come to the doors at Gigi. What's the best way to learn more?

Is there a website? You can go to our website. All of our information we found on our website. It's Gigi's playhouse.org slash Syracuse. Gigi's Playhouse.org slash Syracuse. We have a very specific ask right now. We are really looking, like I said, at the beginning of this podcast,

We have grown more than we could have ever anticipated, and we need to grow financially. We have a campaign that we're doing right now to raise $50,000 in the next three months. And so we have an immediate ask, and I think what I would ask of anybody watching this is if something has resonated with you, if something has hit home, if you have a family member that has benefited or could benefit from GGs or a neighbor or someone in your network, please come. I'd love to give you a tour of GGs. I'd love for you to be a friend of GGs and see the immediate impact that we're having

and also know immediately and see firsthand where your dollars are going and what they could impact. So we have a real immediate need right now to be able to secure that funding and then build up our sustainability for the next several years. Beautiful. For local nonprofits? Yes. ProNexis is in the nonprofit space here locally. We do a lot of work in the Nata test finance and accounting space.

We're able to partner with a lot of nonprofits. nonprofits and be able to do a full or fractional outsource of all their accounting and finance needs. The service line that I've built up for ProNexis really allows for nonprofits that are struggling, whether it be at the organization level or a particular department. We are able to come in and be able to do assessments, build out a plan of action, and immediately rebuild infrastructure and stabilize within four to six months. We'll provide interim coverage. Any nonprofit leader knows that if there's a gap, you know, if you're a board member and you've got a gap in the executive

director's CEO position or if you're a CEO and you've got a gap in the chief operating officer position or any of those critical C-suite roles, we're able to come in and provide interim plug-and-play coverage. So there's no gap or hiccup in operations. And again, like we talked about with Alyssa, we did the retained search for the executive director position and secured Alyssa's position there. We're working with the board at Gigi. So we do retain search. And those are just a few the services that we offer. Again, it's, you know, we have our own website, pro nexuslc.com. We'd love to talk more about how we can serve your nonprofit here in central New York. And I just want to add to that too, because the retained search process was,

I really appreciated the fact that not only did she take the time to learn GGs and what they needed, she takes the time to learn the actual person that she's trying to place at these organizations to really make sure that it's a marriage that both sides are going to be successful with. So it's not just, oh, you need this. This person has this on paper and dropped them into that organization. I mean, we had numerous meetings and phone calls before I even interviewed with GGs or that information was even sent to them to really find out about me what type of position I'm looking for, what type of culture I'm looking for in an organization. And I feel like that's part of, that's a huge reason for the success that's happened between myself and Gigi's over the last

year is that she really takes the time to get to know both sides to make sure that it's a long lasting relationship and you're not just constantly a revolving door of people coming in and out of nonprofits. Cool. Well, guys, hey, thank you so much for coming on. Seriously. Is there anything that we didn't cover that you want to touch on? Thank you for having us today. Thank you for having us. Absolutely. I appreciate it. Ladies gentlemen, thank you so much for watching. This is Good News, York. My name is Noah Chrysler. Guys, this is a show put on by Clickstream Studios. You can learn more and get a free marketing plan as a part of our grand opening here. We are doing free marketing plans for local businesses.

If you go to call.cstreamstreetios.com, you can book a session with me. We talked for about 45 minutes. I learn everything about your business. And then I go do a bunch of research and I put together a tailored plan for you. You can use that plan on your own or if you want to, you can use that with us if you so choose. Thank you also so much to our sponsor, Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Go.com. Thanks for watching, guys.

Have a great day. Bye-bye.