Why Networked Communities are the Key to Recovery

Written by Erica Mulberger, Executive Director, CPWDC

As Memorial Day has come and gone with no parades, no baseball, and no large summer kick-off parties, one thing has remained constant: Central Pennsylvanians stayed committed to ensuring our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers would come out of this pandemic just as strong as we were going into it. We know this is far from over, but through everyone’s efforts to social distance and work together to provide PPE for the healthcare providers and other businesses, the nine counties representing the Central PA Workforce Development Area are in the “yellow” phase with some counties moving to “green” this week.

This Central PA stick-togetherness and creativity (like the idea of using waterproof house wrap to make intake gowns) caught the attention of the national team that started the Next Generation Industry Partnership model, and they highlighted the work of the MADE in Central PA manufacturing partnership and the Central PA Healthcare Partnership’s response to COVID-19 in this article, Why Networked Communities are the Key to Economic Recovery, written by Francie Genz, Co-Principal, Institute for Networked Communities.

This is all started with the joint healthcare and manufacturing partnership Zoom meeting in late March which resulted in the plan put together in the email below.

I have to give a special shout-out to Tom Kapelewski who continues to be the point person on this project, connecting local partners with raw material and parts suppliers from all of over the US! And another shout-out to Geisinger and Evangelical Community Hospitals who provided designs and input into usable materials.

Lastly, kudos to everyone on this email for continuously doing your part to protect our families, our businesses, and our communities. #CentralPAProud

IMC is a proud member of the MADE in Central PA Manufacturing Partnership!