Guilford County, North Carolina, is receiving national recognition for five programs built around practical public service.
The county announced September 3 that the National Association of Counties recognized initiatives spanning civic education, human services, public health, economic development and support for people experiencing homelessness.
Five different ways to show up
The honorees include the county's Budget Town Hall Series, designed to help residents understand public finances, and the Friends in Action SNAP/Medicaid Series, which helps connect people with public benefits.
The list also includes Guilford County Public Health's Community Shield Program, a statewide study of minority- and women-owned business enterprises, and the Melvin “Skip” Alston Golf Classic Supporting Homeless Initiative.
NACo says its Achievement Awards recognize innovative county-government programs across 18 categories. The program is noncompetitive, meaning the recognition is not a claim that one county's work outranked every other county's.
A public-health idea others can study
Community Shield also received separate recognition from the National Association of County and City Health Officials. NACCHO listed Guilford County Division of Public Health among 42 recipients of its 2026 Model Practice Awards.
NACCHO describes Model Practices as exemplary, replicable responses to important local public-health needs. The organization says winners were selected through a competitive, peer-reviewed process and added to a database where other health departments can study their approaches.
The county's announcement names each program but does not provide outcome totals for all five. Genuine Good is therefore reporting the recognition and the programs' stated purposes without assigning an unverified number of people helped.
Taken together, the awards point to a simple version of local government at its best: making budgets easier to understand, helping families navigate benefits, improving community health and building support around neighbors who need it.