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Fairfax County Receives 5 NaCo Achievement Awards

June 17, 2008

News Highlights

• Fairfax County's Public Library; Department of Family Services Office for Children; Department of Finance; and Department of Information Technology received NACo 2008 Achievement Awards.
• Fairfax County has won Achievement Awards in 20 of the 21 categories that recognize innovative county programs during the past six years.

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More Information  Library Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Office for Children Finance Information Technology

Fairfax County received five National Association of Counties (NACo) 2008 Achievement Awards. For the past six years, the county has been honored by NACo in 20 of the 21 categories that recognize innovative county programs.

This year the awards went to the county's Public Library; Department of Family Services Office for Children; Department of Finance; and Department of Information Technology.The following programs were recognized:

Changing Lives Through Literature
Public Library
In collaboration with the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court and the probation and parole sector of the Virginia Department of Corrections, the Fairfax County Public Library launched an alternative sentencing program using the power of literature and reading to transform the lives of teens and adults. Weekly discussion groups of six to 12 offenders, a judge, a probation officer and a facilitator involve reading, reflecting, sharing and mutual engagement. While detention and/or incarceration isolates offenders from the community, this alternative program places the offender with community role models in an intense mutual examination of issues.

School Readiness Collaborative
Department of Family Services Office for Children
Increasingly large numbers of children enter kindergarten without the social and educational skills needed to succeed in school. Through the School Readiness Collaborative, the Fairfax County's Office for Children brought together other county agencies, schools, child care programs, the business community and parents to develop strategies for better transition planning for children from preschool to kindergarten, improved competencies of preschool teachers, and a shared understanding of the role that everyone plays in helping children succeed in school.

DART Program — Improving Transparency and Accountability in Public Finance
Department of Finance
To streamline the process of providing relevant and reliable financial information to other county departments, the Fairfax County Department of Finance designed a Data Analysis and Retrieval Tool (DART). DART provides a self-service capability for agencies' financial managers and analysts to extract data from the county's financial systems without the need for advanced technical skills. This data can then be used to better analyze and forecast financial information.

Information Technology Project Management (ITPM) Training Program
Department of Information Technology
The ITPM training program provides the county's IT project managers with a foundation in basic project management concepts, principles and practices to effectively manage technology projects. This training program has been customized to sync with the county's IT business processes to provide the county's IT project managers with the skills to deliver business systems that meet users' requirements on time and within allocated budget.

Security Awareness Day
Department of Information Technology
In 2005, the Fairfax County Department of Information Technology sponsored the first Security Awareness Day to highlight the importance of protecting the data of the county's more than 1 million residents, 12,000 employees and thousands of vendors who sell goods and services to the county. What began as a one-time training session to enhance security awareness efforts has grown to an annual event open to all employees. A balance of technical and non-technical sessions cover a range of issues relevant to anyone using technology systems and electronic information, as well as personal use of the Internet, new legislation affecting computer use in the workplace and special considerations for protecting children and e-commerce. The program also recognizes the county's expanding telework program by providing information specific to employees interacting with county systems from home computers.

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