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Josh Maxwell
County Commissioner | Chester County, PA

CommUNITY Response Teams

Idea Category: Jobs and Entrepreneurship, Smart Government

Problem

Chester County experienced immeasurable loss during the pandemic, including more than 800 lives and hundreds of businesses. In order to get back to where we were, and ideally have a better economy than we had previously, we need to include all corners of our community to develop long-term, forward thinking solutions that will establish our County as a driver of economic growth during the next 10 years.

Solution

Chester County has embarked on a mission to use the American Rescue Plan Act funds to rebuild our community. A critical part of the process is to include members of the public as part of the evaluation teams that will prioritize and review proposals that would most effectively spend-down the funding. Seven evaluation teams will be established by Chester County to address each priority area for ARPA funding. Each team will include representatives from Chester County Government’s finance department, solicitor’s office and strategic planning team, who will facilitate the priority groups. Three county employee volunteers and four volunteers from the community will complete each team. Members that will help direct the ARPA funds represent a cross section of people covering all ages, genders, socio-economic and geographical areas of the county. This approach helps ensure the difficult questions are asked of proposals, leading to increased results and outcomes.