A dozen founding members of a local organization hope their joint effort bolsters the region\u2019s workforce pipeline.<\/p>\n
The NEPA Workforce Funder Collaborative \u2014 launched March 3 \u2014 will support projects that align education, workforce and industry partners around shared career pathways to ensure resources are coordinated across Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, Carbon and Monroe counties, rather than concentrated in specific communities, officials said.<\/p>\n
Lindsay Landis, community impact director for the Luzerne Foundation in Wilkes-Barre, views the collaborative as a positive step forward for the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cAchieving equitable access to education, skills training, and sustainable wage careers requires coordinated investment and shared strategy beyond the capacity of any single organization,\u201d she said. \u201cBy partnering with other funders, we can reduce systemic barriers, align resources, and create scalable workforce pathways that meaningfully enhance the lives of Luzerne County residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Different groups began brainstorming different potential solutions several years ago and developed a list of 10 recommendations, said Laura Ducceschi, president and CEO of the Scranton Area Community Foundation and co-chair of the collaborative.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround 2019, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation convened a large group of community leaders to start to get a handle on how we can tackle some major workforce challenges,\u201d she said. \u201cThen, they started to convene a smaller group that decided they needed a permanent home, or a collaborative, that wants to cut across a lot of the silos in terms of some of the disconnects within the workforce ecosystem, because it was fragmented.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Scranton Area Community Foundation started an initiative to look at how we could collectively address these issues and build a better workforce, Ducceschi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tackled about four of the 10 (recommendations),\u201d she added. \u201cA big one was making sure there was a funder\u2019s collaborative looking at how we can pool resources to really start moving the needle. Working together is important, but when we pair that with distinct funding to help catalyze this I think that\u2019s where we really start to see momentum. Workforce is one of the most important issues in our region to really build and grow a thriving region in so many ways, and many of the funders represent a variety of these geographical areas where they would put their money. It\u2019s focused on making sure each county is heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The partners gathered for several quarterly meetings leading up to the launch, with another scheduled for late March.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe plan to formalize a lot of the strategies, a lot of the policies and a lot of the plans,\u201d Ducceschi said. \u201cFrom there, we\u2019ll be able to put out calls for funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danielle Breslin, president and CEO of Moses Taylor Foundation and co-chair of the collaborative, highlighted the need to fill a variety of health care positions \u2014 from medical assistants to nurses to physicians. She credits the Anchors for Equity program led by The Institute, along with the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, for providing a blueprint for the group to follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey brought together the educational institutions and health care institutions in the community to identify the most high-need positions and places where we can start to make an impact,\u201d she said. \u201cIn some cases, people may come in and start doing some work getting a credential. Then, while they\u2019re working, they can take some additional classes and maybe move into being a nurse\u2019s aide or medical assistant. We\u2019re really trying to help people make their way through the health care pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
The collaborative consists of AllOne Charities, the Carbon County Community Foundation, the Community Foundation of Monroe County, Geisinger Health Foundation, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the Hawk Family Foundation, JobsFirstNYC, the Luzerne Foundation, Moses Taylor Foundation, NEPA Health Care Foundation, Scranton Area Community Foundation and the Wayne County Community Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we\u2019re starting to come together and pool our resources and focus together, that creates a lot more opportunity and likelihood that we\u2019re going to be able to bring in funding from outside the region,\u201d Ducceschi said.<\/p>\n
Breslin added it will be critical to attract financial support from both regional and national sources for the initiative to reach its full potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know it\u2019s going to take more than the money we have here in the community today,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re sending a message to other funders from outside the area that we\u2019re an area that is ripe for investment if you care about workforce issues, and particularly workforce issues in health care.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Cosgrove, CEO of AllOne Foundation & Charities, believes strength in numbers makes a difference when trying to generate the biggest impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever one or more of us, from the philanthropic sector, come together to leverage our collective resources it\u2019s a good thing,\u201d he said. \u201cAs far as this effort is concerned, focusing on the workforce solutions in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we consider that to be an excellent investment because one of our most valuable commodities as a region is our workforce \u2014 it\u2019s our neighbors and family and friends. We have to pool our resources and we have to be much more strategic about where the investments go in order to get the best solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cosgrove also feels the mix of partners should help spur constructive discussions and positive changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have large foundations, corporate entities and community foundations, of all shapes and sizes, coming together to share what they\u2019re seeing and hearing on the front lines of their own community about where the needs are and how we can best utilize our collective resources,\u201d he said. \u201cFor many generations, the work ethic of the people of Northeastern and North-Central Pennsylvania has been our strength. It\u2019s in our heritage and it\u2019s very much alive today. The purpose of this collaborative is to shine as bright a light on that, and remove some barriers that are holding back those ethics from being fully realized.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dozen founding members of a local organization hope their joint effort bolsters the region\u2019s workforce pipeline. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,5523,201,182,803,2941,139,28,178,180,179,181,1481],"class_list":["post-138712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-business","tag-carbon-county","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-monroe-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt","tag-wayne-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}