Announcing 2026 NACo Achievement Award Winners

A collaborative approach to preserving Weld County history led to a meaningful community-focused project benefitting not only the residents of Weld County but also all of Colorado. In 2018, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s Curator of Dinosaurs contacted Weld County with a win-win proposal for both entities: Allow the museum to remove, refurbish, research and return the fossil to Weld County and by doing so not only provide a refreshed fossil display for the county to share with residents but also allow the county take residents (and as it turned out, public from around the world) on a behind-the-scenes journey through scientific work, county history, and civic pride.

Completed in 2023, the project ensured the fossil’s long-term preservation while enhancing public access to this scientific and educational resource. The restoration of Pops the Triceratops demonstrates Weld County’s commitment to preserving natural history and sharing it with the community.

Recognizing the need for accessible, high-quality early childhood education, the Early Childhood Services leadership team created a system to support vulnerable family's ineligible for traditional subsidies while ensuring fair compensation for providers. The EquiCare grant program funds dedicated seats for infants and toddlers (6 weeks–3 years) in childcare programs that meet rigorous quality benchmarks. This innovative model covers all costs, eliminating copayments or additional tuition for families.

By prioritizing the youngest children and requiring high standards, EquiCare delivers enriching early care experiences and promotes equity across Montgomery County. Since its launch, the program has awarded grants to 25 childcare providers, funding 300 seats in communities with the greatest need.

EquiCare exemplifies a comprehensive approach to early childhood education—supporting families, strengthening providers, and ensuring every child has access to quality care during their most critical developmental years.

Help Right Here is an online resource created by New Hanover County to connect residents quickly and easily with behavioral health and substance use disorder services. This tool provides a centralized, easy-to-navigate directory of verified local treatment providers, crisis services, and recovery supports. Designed to remove barriers to care, the platform allows individuals to search for services based on their unique needs and complete a questionnaire that guides them toward appropriate support.

The initiative combines a community-focused website with a targeted digital outreach campaign to ensure residents know help is available and can access resources when they need it most. Since its launch in November 2025, the platform has generated more than 25,000 website views and 451 questionnaires from residents seeking support. By simplifying access to treatment resources and promoting awareness of available services, Help Right Here strengthens New Hanover County’s coordinated response to behavioral health and substance use challenges.

Liberty Lane is an 80-unit apartment community designed to support veterans and their families experiencing homelessness, including those with mental health disabilities, while also serving low-income households. The development will include 60 one-bedroom and 19 two-bedroom units, creating a stable, dignified environment that promotes opportunity and long-term housing security.

The project is rooted in strong community vision and collaboration. The site is owned by the oldest African American Baptist church in Redlands, which led efforts to transform the land into housing for those most in need. This vision resulted in a partnership among the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino, the County Department of Behavioral Health, the Veterans Affairs Loma Linda Healthcare System, and US VETS. Together, these organizations provide housing, counseling, career development, and mental health services, creating a development that reflects compassion, resilience, and a shared commitment to serving vulnerable populations.

Yuma County produced a short, professionally developed video titled "Customer Service: The Core of Our Mission" to reinforce that public service is a public trust and that every employee represents government to the residents we serve. Targeted to all County employees across departments, as well as widely shared with the public, the video aligns daily interactions with the County’s mission, core values and strategic plan. Since its launch, it has strengthened internal culture, elevated expectations for service delivery and reinforced the County’s commitment to serving the community with distinction and pride.

At the heart of Macomb County, Michigan Public Works Office’s operations is the mission to improve quality of life for residents by improving water quality. That effort includes safeguards to protect Lake St. Clair, a freshwater lake of 430 square miles with hundreds of miles of coastline along parts of southeast Michigan and Ontario, Canada and often referred to as “the heart of the Great Lakes.”

Through proactive action by the department, Macomb County is the first county agency in the United States to implement an automated system of monitoring the levels of residual chlorine that enters the lake following chemical treatment of combined sanitary and stormwater flow when the volume of that flow exceeds the capacity of retention basins and is discharged into the lake.

The Fairfax County Police Department’s Drone as First Responder (DFR) program is a strategic, community-centered initiative that enhances real-time public safety response through rapid aerial deployment. Launched in September 2025, Fairfax County became the first jurisdiction in the National Capital Region to receive Federal Aviation Administration authorization to operate drones in restricted airspace. The program integrates drone operations within the Real Time Crime Center to provide immediate situational awareness during calls for service. Drones are deployed in under two minutes on average and arrive first on scene in approximately 70 percent of incidents. The program emphasizes transparency, community engagement, and data-informed deployment, while supporting critical incidents, such as missing-person and fleeing-suspect cases. Through strong governance, interagency collaboration, and public outreach, the DFR program improves safety outcomes while building community trust and serving as a national model for responsible public safety innovation.

The Cuyahoga County Taxpayer Assistance Program (TAP) was introduced as a solution to the growing issue of senior homeowners struggling to keep their homes due to financial and economic challenges. According to The State of the Nation's 2025 report, in 2023, over a third (34 percent) of older households were cost burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing. The TAP Program simultaneously helps seniors manage their tax burden and supports them with financial counseling to develop a plan for long-term home stability.

Dakota County Public Health and Dakota County Library partnered to transform library locations into community health hubs that connect residents with critical health resources in familiar, trusted spaces. The program addresses three major public health priorities: reducing opioid overdoses, improving breastfeeding support for families, and expanding access to mental health resources.

Through the partnership, ten library locations became distribution sites for free naloxone kits and opioid education, hosts for weekly and monthly “Feeding Your Baby” lactation support groups, and promotion points for CredibleMind, a digital mental well-being platform.

In its first year, the program distributed more than 1,200 naloxone kits, hosted over 80 breastfeeding support sessions, and connected more than 1,000 residents to mental health resources. By integrating public health programming into accessible community spaces, the initiative expands reach, reduces stigma, and ensures more residents can access lifesaving tools and health support.

Here in Frederick County, where overdose deaths have decreased each year since 2022, we’re onboard with the idea that everyone has a role to play in recovery.

On National Save a Life Day 2025, Transit Services of Frederick County announced a powerful partnership: Transit teamed up with the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services to equip 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 5𝟎 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 (and counting) 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐚𝐧 (naloxone)! This is only one aspect of the critical work happening across Frederick County to reduce avoidable 911 calls, connect individuals with long-term support and services, and expand access to treatment and support. By connecting Division of Fire and Rescue Services, Division of Transit Services, Frederick County Health Department, Division of Communications and Public Engagement, Division of Aging and Independence, and amplifying existing efforts, resources are being shared, and lives are being saved.

Howard County recognized a need for a holistic means of communicating the meaning and impact of its department and office initiatives. The County’s vision resulted in HoCo Dash 2.0, a platform that extracts the essence of large projects, initiatives, and performance measures into brief narratives that are visually compelling and easy to understand. HoCo Dash 2.0 was developed through a collaborative, user-centered process led by Slalom Consulting and Department of Technology & Communication Services (DTCS), in partnership with County Administration, and departmental experts. It’s redefined how Howard County communicates with its residents. By shifting from static data and charts and dense reports to narrative-driven, human-interest, visually engaging stories, the platform has made government performance transparent, relatable, and actionable. HoCo Dash 2.0 is unique in its human-centered, story-first approach to government transparency. The platform leads with people, crafting stories that put residents and their priorities at the center.

The Read to Recovery collection at Chesterfield Public Library provides free access to high-quality recovery materials for individuals affected by opioid addiction. Developed in partnership with the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority, the collection offers a curated set of books and pamphlets on opioid use, treatment and recovery that are available without a library card. Patrons do not check them out and do not need to return them. Materials are free for individuals to keep and use throughout their recovery journey or while supporting others. By removing traditional borrowing barriers, the library created a discreet, judgment-free pathway for community members to get reliable information and self-guided support. Located in libraries serving areas with historically high overdose rates, the collection strengthens the county’s broader harm-reduction strategy and reinforces the library’s role as an accessible, trusted resource for public health initiatives.

The Chapman Field Park Resilience and Restoration Project is a multi-phase initiative led by Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS) to restore recreational amenities while addressing long-term environmental vulnerabilities associated with sea level rise. Serving residents across southern Miami-Dade County, the project combined environmental remediation, climate adaptation, and recreation improvements, including ballfields, practice fields, a pavilion, and open space to restore safe public access and modernize park facilities. The result is a resilient coastal park that supports athletics, waterfront recreation, and long-term environmental sustainability.

This program provides free, accessible training resources and recorded instruction to county staff across North Carolina who work in economic benefits programs, including SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and related eligibility programs. It is designed to support counties that lack the capacity to develop their own training programs. Serving both new and experienced staff, it delivers consistent, high-quality content while also offering guidance to counties seeking to build their own training infrastructure. The result is improved workforce readiness, reduced duplication of effort, and stronger collaboration across county lines.

Warren County, KY had to find creative ways to engage the community to address critical challenges it was facing. The county will grow by 33% in the next 20 years. Realizing the magnitude and multiplicity of this question, he began working with more than 100 leaders across the community on identifying shared vision, values, and priorities. However, this was a community-wide challenge that needed to have community-based solutions. How can you have meaningful public engagement in today’s divided world? How do you reach people in a fractured and social media-driven information age? What Could BG Be? provided the conduit needed to have the “largest town hall in the United States,” The result was 8,000 participants, 4,000 unique ideas and 1,000,000 data points of public input, analyzed by artificial intelligence and community leaders, which produced a database of agreement on issues of importance the community can use to plan its future.

The Countywide Damage Assessment Team is organized through a mutual-aid network that helps local governments quickly document residential, NGO, and small-business damages after disasters. Using a shared Memorandum of Understanding, standardized procedures, and a county-customized mobile damage assessment tool, municipal staff can deploy across jurisdictional boundaries and submit consistent, accurate reports. The County’s Office of Emergency Management coordinates activation, training, and quality control, then shares data collected by the team of the damaged properties with local decision-makers and Wisconsin Emergency Management to support timely disaster declarations and recovery assistance. First deployed during the August 2025 Wisconsin floods, the program enabled nearly 700 vetted home damage assessments in just days, helping residents access approximately $19.5 million in FEMA Individual Assistance, and as a result, accelerating community recovery.

Orange County, Florida, is transforming how transportation decisions are made through its Vision Zero initiative, a comprehensive, data-driven effort to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2040.

Rather than treating safety as a standalone program, Orange County has embedded Vision Zero principles into every transportation project, ensuring that safety, equity, and proactive design are central to planning, engineering, and operations. Through regional collaboration, advanced data analysis, and targeted infrastructure and education strategies, the County is shifting from a reactive approach to a proactive, systemwide model of traffic safety.

Early results show measurable progress, including a 28 percent reduction in fatalities between 2022 and 2024, demonstrating the effectiveness of this integrated approach.

With a population of less than 6,000 and a budget under $8 million, Cumberland County is limited to a team of roughly two dozen people who are responsible for handling emergency management, ABC licensing, HR/payroll, occupational tax, animal control, county road maintenance, etc. For decades, team members have been stretched and are expected to do more with less. Three years ago, the county looked within and discovered a trend, a large number of retirees had been moving to the area for the “small town community feel.” The local assumption had been that re-located retirees didn’t want to get involved, but their actions suggested something different. As such, we started the “retired and inspired” initiative, where we focused on speaking with community groups, local boards, schools, and other government entities to build a list of volunteers to expand county services and host community events that otherwise would have been impossible.