A message from the Chamber’s President & CEO Rob Wonderling to our community about the launch of the Philadelphia Skills Forward initiative in partnership with Accenture, Graduate! Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Works, Inc.

Dear Friends,

The capacity of our chamber to move quickly for impact has never been more apparent than with this week’s launch of the Philadelphia Skills Forward initiative.

A collaboration between the Chamber, Accenture, Graduate! Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Works, Inc., Skills Forward will retrain and deploy workers displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn, particularly Black and brown citizens as well as those whose jobs are at risk of automation.

The capacity and velocity of our business community to unite for regional recovery was in full effect at this past Thursday’s meeting of the Chamber’s Board of Directors. As the volunteer leaders of this initiative – Accenture’s Nicole Tranchitella, PECO’s Mike Innocenzo, and Citizen Bank’s Dan Fitzpatrick – took the virtual stage to announce the work to come, a commotion started in the chat box.

Board leaders began to raise their hands in real time to make a commitment to hire, mentor, or teach the 5,000 workers projected to be reskilled over the next three years by this initiative. It was darn impressive, if not inspirational, to see companies of all industries, sizes, and missions energetically take on this challenge. In less than 30 minutes, we added over 30 organizations to the already robust list of major employers committed to this work.

From its earliest conception around Labor Day to Thursday’s announcement of a commitment from over 75 employers, this initiative is a reflection of how the Recharge & Recover PHL recommendations are quickly becoming reality.

We encourage other regional employers to raise your hand and tell us how you can help to forge a path toward inclusive regional recovery.

Stay safe, connected, and healthy, and continue to let us know how we can help.

Rob

Rob Wonderling
President & CEO
The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia