BROWARD COUNTY, FL - Broward County has received 20 Achievement Awards from the National Association of Counties (NACo) for innovative government programs that enhance quality of life for residents.

Broward County, the second largest county in Florida and the 17th largest county in the nation, is recognized this year for programs and services that promote environmental resiliency, use technology to provide real-time information and improve access to decision-making data, showcase art and culture, streamline procurement processes, assist small businesses, help plan for the future growth of the County, educate on environmental redevelopment, assist residents with co-occurring substance abuse/mental health issues, and celebrate achievements.

Agency award winners are:

• Resilient Environment Department with eight awards including four from the Urban Planning Division GIS Section for 1) creating a centralized platform to streamline access to GIS information for internal users; 2) a project management solution customized for reporting, work and time management; 3) a preliminary damage assessment survey, tailored to collect immediate post-incident damage data to help identify when the County meets the requirements for state and federal assistance; and 4) an application that helps users understand population trends, allowing municipal planners to proactively address potential needs and challenges.
  
  
  Consumer Protection Division's Innovation Unit, in collaboration with the Purchasing Division, received an award for designing a dynamic tool that ensures seamless tracking and management of key procurement activities and insight for all commercial spending activity.
  
  
  Natural Resources Division received an award for the installation of a large-scale solar canopy that produces enough clean energy to offset 30% of the electricity used by the adjacent County library.
  
  
  Environmental Permitting Division received an award for creating an interactive GIS Storymap with maps, success stories, and educational environmental content encouraging active participation in community revitalization and redevelopment.
  
  
  The Department also received an award with the Cultural Division for collaborating with an environmental artist to engage the public in resilience discussions.
  

• Cultural Division received four more awards for 1) creating a program ensuring equitable access to funding for community-driven events within the cultural and small business sectors; 2) providing journalistic coverage of the arts and culture in Broward County; 3) a public art initiative using virtual and augmented reality to make the County's public art collection accessible globally; and 4) coordinating a festival that connected the community through immersive and innovative digital art through technology.
  
  
• Broward County Library received three awards for 1) launching a paid non-resident electronic library card (e-card) to assist with long waits by customers for on-hold library materials and opening a source of revenue; 2) launching a four-month "Peace Love Libraries" public awareness campaign in celebration of its 50th anniversary; and 3) hosting a four-day event celebrating Black culture and history. 
  
  
• Enterprise Technology Services won for implementing network segmentation to reduce the risk of unauthorized access, enhance operational efficiency, and protect personal information.
  
  
• Human Services' Broward Addiction Recovery Center won for creating an outreach team addressing the needs of residents with any co-occurring substance use disorder/mental health, traveling to identified critical hotspot areas within the County to provide comprehensive support to improve the overall wellbeing of the community.
  
  
• Parks and Recreation Division won for launching a program to bridge the gap between our Hispanic community and nature-based programming, providing nature experiences in Spanish.
  
  
• Port Everglades won for developing a comprehensive study that included interviews with more than 7,000 cruise guests, collecting data, findings, and analyses to help stakeholders in the area's tourism-centric business community plan their advertising and marketing programs.
  
  
• Office of Economic and Small Business Development's Film Lauderdale won for launching a free skills workforce program to train crossover industries in the small business community on how their skillset can transfer into the screen industry.

The award-winning programs are all services of the Broward County Commission. Read more about the awards here.

Nationally, NACo awards are given in 18 categories that reflect the vast, comprehensive services counties provide, including arts, culture and historic preservation, civic education and public information, community and economic development, information technology, health, county resiliency, personnel management, employment and training, emergency management and more.