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HANOVER TWP. — More than 19,000 households in Northeastern Pennsylvania do not have a car and they say that work is the most difficult location for them to access.
Those residents of median neighborhoods in NEPA are only able to get to 14 percent of total employment opportunities in the region using public transportation.
Those two facts were at the forefront at Wednesday’s news conference, hosted by American Paper Bag in the Hanover Industrial Park.
The news conference was sponsored by NEPA Moves, the transportation initiative of the Scranton Area Community Foundation, which announced its formal partnership with Wilkes-Barre Connect, an arm of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce.
The news conference was called to detail the groups’ strategy to provide business-specific transportation resources and personalized transportation solutions for businesses facing workforce challenges in the newly developed Hanover Industrial Park.
“This partnership with Wilkes-Barre Connect is a big step in working to overcome that challenge,” said Laura Ducceschi, president/CEO of the Scranton Area Community Foundation.
In addition to Ducceschi, comments were offered by Joseph Boylan, executive director of Wilkes-Barre Connect, and Ashley Putnam, director of the Economic Growth & Mobility Project at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Boylan said the PARKS Initiative — a pilot program that allows businesses the opportunity to request a variety of services through a user-friendly, online platform — will be officially launched on July 15 in the Hanover Industrial Estates.
Funded by the PA Department of Community & Economic Development, Boylan said the goal of PARKS is simple — to streamline the process it takes for businesses to access an executable strategy and the resources necessary to grow in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He said PARKS will allow businesses to access workforce, internship, academic-industry partnerships, transportation and financing services at a click of a button.
“The PARKS Initiative mirrors the vision of Wilkes-Barre Connect by embracing technology and simplifying processes to keep pace with private industry,” Boylan said. “Long gone are the days of endless meetings and hand-offs in a complicated nonprofit and government web of services. PARKS is developed specifically to reduce the time and energy it takes for businesses to request and secure the solutions they desperately need, in a fraction of the time.”
Boylan said job applicants will be able to obtain transportation options from prospective employers through the system.
Boylan went on to say that businesses requesting transportation assistance through the PARKS Initiative will be provided an executable strategy by NEPA Moves, to meet the needs of their workforce — in terms of attraction and retention. The strategies will feature a mix of public and private solutions rolled into one strategy, customized specifically for the business.
Representatives of state Department of Transportation and the Luzerne County Transportation Authority attended the event and have been part of the planning.
Boylan said NEPA Moves is spearheaded by the Scranton Area Community Foundation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and is comprised of more than 90 community leaders. Wilkes-Barre Connect is the entrepreneurial and economic development arm of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber.
“The PARKS Initiative will start in Hanover, but we anticipate launching this service across all of the parks within our geographic footprint in the near future,” Boylan said. “This represents another huge step towards making Northeastern PA a business-friendly and innovative community.”
Ducceschi said NEPA Moves and Wilkes-Barre Connect will work with individual businesses to identify specific transportation barriers affecting the ability to attract and retain workforce and will develop and help implement customizable and cost-effective transportation solutions for participating businesses.
She said transportation barriers limit access to affordable housing, employment, education, and quality health care in the Northeastern Pennsylvania region.
