Pennsylvania Economy League Inc

Programs: Pel, southeastern pa, llc, dba economy league of greater philadelphia(economy league or elgp):the elgp addresses critical issues facing greater philadelphia by providing impactful research, connecting diverse leaders, and advancing shared solutions. We envision a thriving greater philadelphia region powered by informed and collaborative leadership. The economy league's world class greater philadelphia agenda focuses on improving education and talent development outcomes in our region, boosting business growth and making our infrastructure more effective and reliable. The world class agenda was developed with input from more than 1,700 regional business, nonprofit, government, labor, and community leaders from across greater philadelphia. With the world class agenda, the economy league is working to create a model for convening leaders to set regional priorities and identify and implement promising, high-impact strategies to enhance growth and expand economic opportunity in the region. In may 2017, the economy league held a public forum to release driving tech talent growth in phl, the culmination of a year-long project to develop a detailed understanding of the region's technology workforce and formulate a collaborative plan for strengthening and expanding the tech talent pipeline. The may forum drew an audience of more than 200 business and civic leaders representing a variety of key employers and tech industries. Early implementation efforts stemming from the driving tech talent growth in phl analysis and strategy have included expanding ongoing collection of critical data on changing it workforce needs, engagement of human resources leaders in the region on addressing tech talent gaps, and an effort to dramatically expand computer science and tech instruction in philadelphia public schools. In july 2017, the economy league held its 7th annual world class summit, focused on metro leadership in a changing landscape with local public officials sharing their priorities amidst dramatic transitions in washington, dc and state capitols. The summit drew a crowd of more than 150 regional leaders representing a variety of key employers and industry clusters reflective of regional demographics. The economy league also continued its work on the pre-k for pa campaign in 2017, conducting research, producing two reports, and engaging new audiences in supporting pre-k. The economy league produced literature on pay-for-success financing to educate state legislators on the topic. In addition, the economy league conducted research outlining the benefits that accrue to communities with high levels of investment in public pre-k. The economy league built additional support for the campaign through multiple speaking engagements, recruitment of business leaders to speak at campaign events, and engaging new southeastern pennsylvania business leaders in the campaign by recruiting them to join the campaign's executive leadership council. The economy league also undertook several research and strategy projects in 2017. On behalf of philadelphia youth network (pyn) and the philadelphia generation work initiative-funded by the annie e. Casey foundation-the economy league of greater philadelphia conducted an assessment of career pathways activity in philadelphia. This assessment relied on interviews with a wide range of stakeholders and a comprehensive self-assessment survey completed by workforce development programs throughout the city. On behalf of the bucks county planning commission, the economy league of greater philadelphia conducted analysis to understand how bristol township and lower bucks county can make the most of the forthcoming interconnection between i-95 and the pennsylvania turnpike. The study brought together leaders across lower bucks communities in a collective process to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to maximizing economic growth and opportunity in bristol township and lower bucks county. On behalf of the southeastern pennsylvania transportation authority (septa), the economy league conducted a study identifying and examining specific opportunities and obstacles to funding public transportation improvements at a regional level in southeastern pennsylvania, and offered recommendations for advancing an action plan for such an effort. To support the development of a comprehensive workforce strategy for philadelphia, the city of philadelphia engaged the economy league of greater philadelphia to conduct quantitative analysis on employment and wages for a set of target sectors: healthcare, retail & hospitality, early childhood education, technology services, business & financial services, construction & infrastructure, and manufacturing & logistics. On behalf of the united way of greater philadelphia and southern new jersey, the economy league developed detailed early literacy profiles for atlantic, burlington, camden, cape may, and cumberland counties in new jersey. Providing context on county-specific barriers to early literacy gathered through additional research and targeted stakeholder interviews, these profiles informed the united way's donor engagement activities. The greater philadelphia leadership exchange (gplex) is an initiative of the economy league to develop business, civic, nonprofit, and government leaders into visionaries dedicated to making greater philadelphia a world class region. Through in-region programming and out-of-region learning visits, the leadership exchange exposes leaders to best practices, forges new connections across sectors and industries, and deepens participants' understanding of greater philadelphia's potential. The economy league held the 2017 leadership exchange in philadelphia on october 12-13. Two hundred and thirty emerging and established leaders from diverse sectors, industries, and counties convened for two days of learning about how businesses and educators are adapting their workplace and training models to reflect the changing nature of work; how nonprofits and local governments are creatively mobilizing resources in the face of constrained public and philanthropic dollars; efforts to broaden and diversify civic engagement in our region; new media models; and much more. Leadership exchange participants built new connections with regional leaders from across demography, geography, and sector. The economy league also hosted the metropolitan caucus reception in new york city on december 1, 2017 as part of the pennsylvania society. Approximately 500 people attended the reception, which featured remarks from montgomery county commissioner dr. Valerie arkoosh and philadelphia mayor jim kenney.

the pennsylvania economy league of greater pittsburgh (pelgp): 2017 was the third and final year of our 2015-2017 strategic agenda, connecting people to opportunity. The pennsylvania economy league of greater pittsburgh ("pelgp") through its strategic affiliation with the allegheny conference on community development ("accd or "the conference") convened private sector leadership to propel programs and initiatives to advance the agenda developed during the 2014 agenda-setting process, which involved the participation by more than 1,000 members and partners from throughout the ten counties of southwestern pennsylvania. The agenda encompassed three over-arching strategies: economy & community, infrastructure and workforce, which focused economic and community development initiatives on common opportunities for improvement, built and reinforced systems that support sustainability and opportunity through world-class infrastructure, and improved access to economic opportunity. We made significant progress in 2017 toward the goals of our three-year agenda, which sought to connect people to opportunity throughout the 10-county region, by aligning three interrelated strategies: workforce, infrastructure and economy & community. Pelgp's focus has been on the infrastructure and economy & community initiatives. The infrastructure strategy focuses on building and reinforcing transportation and infrastructure systems that support sustainability and opportunity. Regional transportation vision- in march 2017, the pelgp released imagine transportation 2. 0 through its regional transportation alliance program. The report envisions how our region can obtain a world-class transportation system in the next 10-to-20 years. The report is the result of 18 months of data collection from nearly 400 stakeholders to understand and regional transportation challenges and opportunities across the region. Imagine transportation 2. 0 is a fully interactive, digital platform that recommends seven principles to guide the region's transportation future and "50 ideas to explore" to improve the system and provide an overview of what's working in transportation across the country and how we can improve as a region. - the rta achieved endorsement of the seven guiding principles by the southwestern pennsylvania commission, all 10 counties, and almost 50 stakeholder organizations across the region that will help to shape transportation planning in future years. - following the release of the report, pelgp fanned out across the 10-county region to engage a wide variety of community stakeholders in a dialogue about imagine transportation 2. 0 and begin to change how the region thinks about our transportation needs and how we make investment decisions. Air service competitiveness- pelgp, along with the conference, is committed to helping build a momentum that will attract even more robust air service to the region. Under the banner of the pittsburgh travel cooperative, we've joined the allegheny county airport authority, pittsburgh technology council and visitpittsburgh to raise awareness in our community that if we are to retain and gain more service, we must support what we have. In support of air service, the conference participated in the inaugural, international nonstop service to reykjavk, iceland and frankfurt, germany on wow air and condor airlines, respectively, and documented and marketed the trips in the region through our region's business; served on the allegheny county airport authority board; and participated in the pittsburgh delegation at the 2017 world routes conference in barcelona. The economy & community strategy focuses economic and community development on common opportunities. Revitalize communities- strengthening communities partnership (scp) secured $2. 3 million in contributions from more than a dozen employers to benefit all seven scp communities - connellsville, homewood, mckees rocks, mt. Oliver/knoxville, sharpsburg, washington and wilkinsburg. - in 2017, we helped to create the statewide nap coalition to encourage increased investment in pennsylvania's neighborhood assistance tax credit program (nap), a key aspect of our scp. The nap tax credit provides long-term sustainable support for locally-based revitalization organizations in low income neighborhoods and leverages additional resources into the community by creating true public-private partnerships. - in december 2017, governor tom wolf announced that $7. 1 million in nap funding will flow to southwestern pennsylvania communities, including to all seven of the scp communities, for projects planned in 2017-18. - we accomplished our top state policy priority by successfully advocating for the passage of historic state pension reform that will save pennsylvania up to $20 billion over 30 years. The law also meets the key principles that we had been advocating for in a meaningful solution. It addresses the ever increasing unfunded pension liability; provides for cost sharing and risk predictability between state employees and taxpayers; increases the overall funding certainty of the retirement systems; and provides adequate retirement security for beneficiaries of the plans.

the continuing issue of local government financial distress remains the center of the central pa llc research, civic leadership education activities, and project agendas during 2017. Local government distress and the impact of changes in state legislation were the primary focus of central's research and programmatic activity. Continuing problems with state funding of school districts, public debate regarding state and local pension reform, local government budget shortfalls and municipal financial distress were issues covered by membership informational meetings and through the use of contract work for specific municipalities as well as general funded research into the historical causes and continuing effects of the deteriorating municipal financial situation. Pel central's major research project for 2017 continued civic leadership education using the "communities in crisis: the truth and consequences of municipal fiscal distress in pennsylvania, 1970 - 2014" report that explored the commonwealth's broken local government system in the full 250-plus page report, funded by a statewide coalition of nine community foundations, was be released in the summer of 2017. The report outlined how act 47 financially distressed municipalities performed on the measurements and the concerns of act 47 coordinators and others relative to the pennsylvania's new act 47 exit requirements. Chapters also delved into revenue and expenditure problems experienced by municipalities under the current local government system, and correlated distress measurements with whether a municipality has local police or uses state police for free. Pel central held regional issues forum events in 2017 to inform our civic leadership on current policy problems. Issues forum topics presented the state budget impasse, possible solutions to the future problems facing pennsylvania due to changing demographics and increased spending obligations, and an examination of the "pay for success" approach to childhood education. Municipal fiscal distress was addressed through our continuing work as coordinators under contracts with the commonwealth for six act 47 financially distressed communities. In addition, pel central prepared financial planning for several municipalities with funding provided by the commonwealth with local matching funding. The central division also continued its membership and public education component by scheduling more than 30 separate events to educate pel members and the general public regarding the important issues within the pel committee regions and the commonwealth as a whole.

pel, inc. Is the administrative arm of the organization.