NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA – At the University of Scranton today, Wall Street West’s fourth regional meeting brought together local, state and federal officials for the announcement of more than $6.5 million in federal funding for projects designed to strengthen the region’s ability to sustain the jobs of the future.

“The Wall Street West partners are focused on short-term investments to leverage long-term dividends. Our goal has always been to invest in those projects that would strategically and effectively build the region’s workforce for the better,” said Chris Haran, co-chair, Human Capital Committee, Wall Street West. “Today’s landmark announcements represent not only a significant infusion of funding to strengthen the pipeline for the next generation of jobs, but also a collaboration of dozens of stakeholders throughout the region that have committed to making this happen.”

The meeting’s keynote speaker was Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11), who discussed the evolution of the Wall Street West project since its inception.

“Restoring our capital markets after 9/11 was an enormous challenge, and from my position on the Financial Services Committee I witnessed firsthand the heroic efforts by the leadership of the New York Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission,” said Congressman Kanjorski. “During oversight hearings later, I strongly encouraged business continuity planning and was pleased with the regulatory guidance issued in April of 2003. I also saw an opportunity for Northeastern Pennsylvania to be a home for business continuity operations, and by August of that year I led a team to New York City to meet with investment banks to present our white paper. It quickly became apparent we needed to improve our fiber optic connectivity, so I was pleased that Governor Rendell took on the task of getting this done.”

Also making remarks was Dr. Robert Garraty, executive director, Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Boards, who addressed the continued need to integrate workforce and economic development.

“Wall Street West projects involve a unique type of regional collaboration that is proving to be successful. By connecting entities - like the Workforce Investments Boards - with regional economic development efforts, Wall Street West is creating a model for other areas of the state and nation,” Garraty said.

Organizations received more than $5.4 million in federal Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) funds to create programs that will strengthen the workforce capacity to make the counties of Berks, Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike and Wayne a pre-eminent locale for business attraction. The recipients and projects were determined based on how they addressed certain categories that would further enhance skill sets for industries like financial services and information technology.

Among the projects for which funding was announced:

• East Stroudsburg University will receive $89,450 for the Business Continuity Training and Marketing Analysis, which will create a business continuity training environment in a data center environment. The goals of the project include providing experiential learning opportunities, technical training and infrastructure to support the workforce needs of Operations/Data Centers; creating a Virtual Operations/Data Center; raising awareness of careers; creating a pipeline of trained workers; and identifying the potential market of financial services companies in the nine-county region.

• Junior Achievement of Northeastern Pennsylvania will receive $374,000 for the Junior Achievement of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Wilkes University Collaboration for Workforce Readiness. The program will create scholarships to allow students to attend Junior Achievement’s ‘Finance Park Program’ and ‘CEO Program,’ as well as create new career awareness programs for high school students.

• The Pike / Wayne Education Partnership will receive $84,000 to develop 21st Century Career Guidance Partnership which will implement a comprehensive career development framework allowing students the opportunity to identify career paths and begin taking the necessary steps to be successful in them..

• The Northeast Pennsylvania Employment Consortium will receive $29,560 for The Financial Industry Training and Support Program, a comprehensive career awareness and skill development program that will create a structured and highly focused forum to connect students, guidance professionals, and businesses. The goal of the initiative will be to increase awareness of financial service opportunities and facilitate the appropriate connections to ensure successful matches between students and industry employers.

• Workforce Wayne will receive $285,000 to create the Building a 21st Century Workforce Delivery System, a model and strategic plan to create an operational framework for delivery of services based on collaboration and regionalism that supports high skill and high wage opportunities.

• TeamPA will receive $250,000 for the Northeast PA – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Center. This project, being developed in other regions throughout the state and county, will create new and strategic methods for teaching these core curriculum topics in classrooms across the Wall Street West region. This project will be completed in collaboration with the National Governor’s Association.