Statement to Our Members by the Board of Directors

The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce is a membership organization made up of businesses large and small, for-profit and non-profit, public and private, from across northeast Pennsylvania. Our culture and the services we provide stem from those same entities and mirror the diverse interests, cultures, and individuals of our region.

In recognizing the current state of social unrest across our nation we, as a community-based organization, must take stock of who we are and how well we represent the cultural views and diversity of our members and our region. We stand firmly with those who speak out about social injustice and support peaceful efforts to promote positive change in favor of equal opportunity for all.

The Chamber has demonstrated our commitment to job creation and business development. In that light, as an inclusive organization, it is imperative that we continue to support this opportunity for all businesses. With our experience, we pledge to take steps to increase opportunities for people of color, and all citizens, by supporting family-sustaining jobs, meaningful career pathways, and the dream of business ownership. These steps will build upon ongoing Chamber efforts to provide a platform for entrepreneurship, access to capital, networking forums, access to work-related public transportation and more – all while working with community leaders to establish dedicated programming designed to open doors to economic opportunity.

We cannot remedy all that has given rise to the current upheaval in America. What we can do is work with our members and our volunteer leaders to focus resources on areas over which we have influence.

The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce will take to heart the lessons of social unrest and translate such into tangible opportunities for economic equality in our regional business community.

Pat Fricchione, Board Chair

Bob Durkin, President