Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce (DCRCOC)

Annual events including the hv hot air balloon festival - the Chamber of Commerce offers a wide range of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual events and activities and collects membership dues and publication fees to support its mission. The Chamber also coordinates and hosts a number of events that support member organizations, including ribbon cuttings, grand openings, ground breaking ceremonies, business tours, and job shadow days that are attended by individuals from the business, academic and general communities. Each event is typically sponsored and hosted by a business member, which receives special marketing and advertising benefits. The Chamber continued to host a variety of virtual events at the beginning of the year and moved towards in person events towards the middle of the year to meet the needs of business members and the community to provide information on matters affecting business. The Chamber hosted over 60 in-person and virtual events that attracted more than 15,000 attendees.

Workforce development center programs - the Chamber operates a workforce development center comprised of the workforce connections program and the career action center program. The workforce connections program provides comprehensive job placement and job retention services to income-eligible adult residents of Dutchess County. The program also provides soft-skill training, mentoring, case management and other services to enrolled participants. During the period of 1-1-2022 through 12-31-2022, the program served 49 adults. Participants received supportive services, employment referrals and other support. Case managers delivered essential food and other items during covid lockdowns and provided holiday food and gifts during december to 5 families.