The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, has recognized Chester County’s Women’s Reentry Assessment and Programming as part of the 100 programs named as semifinalists in this year’s Innovations in American Government Awards competition.

The WRAP initiative will compete to be named a finalist in the competition, and have the chance to be awarded the $100,000 grand prize in Cambridge, Mass., this spring.

The WRAP initiative – led by Chester County’s Department of Probation, Parole, and Pretrial Services – advanced from a pool of more than 500 applications from all 50 states. And it was selected by the Innovations Award evaluators as an example of novel and effective action, the work of which has had a significant impact and can be replicated across the country and world.

Chester County’s WRAP initiative was launched in January 2014, following extensive research to meet the needs of women who have been incarcerated, who were struggling for basic survival, or who were lacking in skills to transition back into family life.

The program began with 50 women, working with one probation officer trained in motivational interviewing and trauma-informed approaches. In two years, WRAP has expanded to the current census of 149 women, using three probation officers, two full-time community case managers, and curricula and tools that address women’s risk factors.

Curricula are delivered in the jail and the community by staff and volunteers, and the early parole of program graduates has reduced jail time for women by more than 1,500 days. Because of WRAP, arrest rates for women for new criminal charges have decreased by 61 percent since the start of the project, and technical violations of community supervision have decreased by 72 percent.

WRAP was developed with replication in mind, and all aspects are easily transferable to any jurisdiction, a key component of the Innovations in American Government Awards competition.

“These programs demonstrate that there are no prerequisites for doing the good work of governing,” said Stephen Goldsmith, Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at the Ash Center. “Small towns and massive cities, huge federal agencies and local school districts, large budgets or no budgets at all — what makes government work best is the drive to do better, and this group proves that drive can be found anywhere.”

The semifinalist programs represent a cross-section of jurisdictions and policy areas, and embody one of the most diverse and sophisticated groups that have advanced to this stage in the competition’s 30-year history.