NACO Awards 2022

​Broward County has received 11 Achievement Awards from the National Association of Counties (NACo) ​for innovative County government programs that strengthen services for residents and are effectively communicated and relevant to the community. 

The award-winning programs are all services of the Broward County Commission. 

Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation

Cultural Division
  • IGNITE Broward Arts Festival: At the intersection of art and technology, Broward County's Cultural Division utilized digital, immersive art to connect the community. Initially piloted as Light the Night, the Cultural Division commissioned local artists to project video art onto the walls of three buildings in downtown Fort Lauderdale during seven nights in March 2021. The project evolved and grew, ultimately returning as IGNITE Broward – a five-day festival of art, light, video and sound in January 2022 with more art and more locations. Through IGNITE Broward, the County provided unique experiences for the community to engage with the arts in safe and accessible environments that appealed to individuals of all ages, reaching more than 10,000 visitors and residents.​

Civic Education and Public Information

Resilient Environment Department​​
  • Broward County Resilience Dashboard: Designed to create a single source of information for resilience tools, programs and communications County-wide. Developed by Broward County staff using GIS technology and ESRI online applications and designed to be user-friendly, interactive and to empower residents, business owners and community leaders to take informed action regarding the current and projected impacts of climate change within the County. Since its debut in May 2021, the Resilience Dashboard has attracted several thousand users and provides a showcase of planning needs and highlights investments, improving transparency in the nature and scope of action across our communities, and empowering communities to advocate for investments needed to address current and future climate change impacts.
Natural Resources Division
  • ​Clean Air Broward Goes Virtual: To continue communicating the importance of these endeavors with the public, our Air Outreach Team created engaging virtual campaigns which were significantly more comprehensive and interactive than those created prior to the pandemic. This was done to increase awareness of air quality-related issues and was accomplished by organizing presentations and events for a wide variety of audiences, contests for both Broward County employees and students and promoting two Car Care Months and an Air Quality Awareness Month. Our outreach initiatives provide information, guidance and actions regarding electric vehicles, proper car maintenance, bicycle commutes and other ways to reduce air pollution through sustainable practices.
  • Green Transport Campaigns: Broward County's Air Program developed and implemented new Green Transport campaigns promoting the use of “green" transport options that generate no direct emissions. The overarching, long-term goal is to maintain, or improve upon, the number of “good" air quality days annually in the County by reducing overall emissions. The EV (Electric Vehicle) Week program aimed to increase electric vehicle interest and utilization, and the Spokes-people program aimed to increase bicycle. Both campaigns sought to reduce the number of conventional, combustion engine vehicles on the road and were highly successful, encouraging more than 7,500 people to consider using electric vehicles or bicycles.

County Administration and Management

Urban Planning Division 
  • Broward County Business Tax Records: A dashboard was created to compile business tax records for Broward County and for non-Broward based businesses based on data gathered from a third-party vendor by leveraging the businesses registered with the State of Florida. Users can view businesses across the County and filter them based on different parameters, allowing the user to filter the information (around 79k+ businesses) based upon category description, city, business type, commission district, business category type, business start date, and business name. Once a parameter is selected, a map is included in the dashboard filters and a description pane displays the business information.
  • Broward County Capital Projects Dashboard: To streamline the reporting of capital projects from a manual process of collecting information and storing project data in several spreadsheets, the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Section created a dashboard with all data that provides monthly updates. This allows information to be communicated quickly and assist with decision making across all levels.

County Resiliency

Resilient Environment Department & Transportation Department
  • Broward Clean Energy and Vehicle Initiatives (CEVI): As part of its efforts to take an ambitious, proactive and approach to minimize carbon emissions and mitigate the harmful impacts of climate change, the County established a suite of Clean Energy and Vehicle Initiatives (CEVI) targeting five areas: Net-zero commitment, Solar investment, 2030 Clean Fleet Goal, Electric Vehicle (EV) Planning and Investments and SolarTogether, a solar subscription program of Florida Power and Light (FPL).

Human Services

Family Success Administration Division 
  • Broward County's Financial Capability Program (FCP) Match Savings Component: Provides financial education through financial workshops and one-on-one financial coaching to help Broward County residents develop individualized financial goals and foster good financial management practices. The participant selects a match savings goal and commits to saving a specific amount monthly towards their desired goal. Upon completion of the savings, the participant's savings goal is matched by a County contribution that ranges from $2,000 to $4,000.
Crisis Intervention & Support Division
  • WeSpeak: Broward County Youth Against Gun Violence Project: Providing youth who reside in Broward County opportunities to engage in meaningful discussions for positive decision-making processes regarding gun violence. A total of 46 youth participated in the camp that consisted of a social media campaign, poetry contest, educational trips, informative speakers, completion of the Habilitation Empowerment Accountability Therapy (HEAT) curriculum and a display of the youth's final project.

Libraries

​Broward County Library​
  • Archiving the Black Web: A National Forum to Map the Landscape, Define the Issues, and Plan a Strategy for Documenting the Black Experience Online (ATBW): An initiative of Broward County's African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) focusing on creating strategies for collecting and preserving Black culture online. ATBW is funded by a prestigious Institute of Museum and Library Services grant and includes two national convenings, an archiving workshop and a project website. Held in April 2021, it had more than 700 attendees.
  • Broward County Library's Science Fair Festival (SFF): A free, annual event providing Broward County students, parents and caregivers with help, guidance and resources to help make their school science fair project a winner. Festival activities include presentations, demonstrations and experiments from local science experts as well as information/Q-and-A sessions with school staff and administration. The ​festival provided students with equal access to STEM-related experts, information and resources to help conceptualize and create their school science projects. 

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