This article was originally published as part of the Grow PA solutions journalism project, published by Technical.ly and underwritten in part by The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia.

Introducing Grow PA, an underwritten reporting series that aims to highlight economic development successes in 10 counties across the state.

Pennsylvania doesn’t truly have a real singular state identity. Yet, every local economy across the Commonwealth suffers from similar challenges — namely, slow growth and retention.

And we have similar strengths. The real barrier keeping Pennsylvania from meeting its potential as a thriving economic powerhouse is a lack of commitment to a unified road map for growth.

A tricky problem, without a doubt. But it’s one we feel we can help understand by providing a platform for shared discourse about the future of Pennsylvania’s economy.

Introducing Grow PA, a pilot reporting series and a partnership between the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia and the Technical.ly team, underwritten in part by the former and produced by the latter.

What to expect from this series: We’ll be seeking specific successes to replicate or lessons to share across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including local economic development policies that are bolstering attraction, retention or business creation, best practices helping trade associations, partnerships and initiatives get the job done more efficiently, technologies that are accelerating business growth — essentially, anything that’s helping boosting economic development in counties across the state.

(We’ve already published our first story, a look at the future of work in Allegheny and how employers can bridge the gap between unfilled jobs and the underemployed, from Pittsburgh-based reporter Kim Lyons.)

Importantly, we want to focus on Pennsylvania’s strongest sectors: Post-secondary education, infrastructure, energy and health. For this initial pilot, we’ll be focusing largely on Greater Pittsburgh, Greater Philadelphia, Central Pennsylvania and the Laurel Highlands, specifically across the following 10 counties:

  • Allegheny County
  • Washington County
  • Armstrong County
  • Chester County
  • Montgomery County
  • Cumberland County
  • Dauphin County
  • Centre County
  • Indiana County
  • Cambria County

That doesn’t mean we’ll be ignoring everyone else. This is a starting point, and we look forward to expanding our regional coverage as this series progresses.

If you want to author a guest post, offer up story ideas or provide some feedback on the work we’re doing (all three are encouraged), contact Liz Ferry at lferry@ChamberPHL.com.

Let’s #GrowPA.