FREE NACo Webinars on Civic Engagement, ARPA, Disaster Mitigation, Summer Hunger, Housing, and Ransomware

The National Association of Counties (NACo) hosts free webinars every month to provide county leaders and professionals with knowledge on best practices and hot topics in various areas.

Join NACo for the following webinars September 18th through September 28th.

Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders: The Junior Commissioner Program and Civic Engagement for Youth

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023, 2:00 P.M. TO 3:00 P.M.          REGISTRATION

Are you interested in engaging the next generation in civic participation and community leadership? The Junior Commissioner program offered by Knox County, Tennessee provides an excellent opportunity for young people to learn about local government and engage in civic and public service within their community. In this webinar, NACo will discuss the importance of civic engagement for the next generation by exploring how the Junior Commissioner program is helping young people develop leadership skills, gain a better understanding of how local government works, and contribute to their communities. Join in to hear from Knox County Commissioner Larsen Jay about the impact of the program on participants and their communities.  Discussion will also include best practices for developing and implementing similar programs in your community and tips on engaging young people.

NACo Information Series on Treasury’s ARPA Flexibility Guidance: Transportation Infrastructure Project

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023, 1:00 P.M. TO 2:00 P.M.          REGISTRATION

On August 10, the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) released their Interim Final Rule (IFR) for the bipartisan State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (i.e. Cornyn/Padilla Amendment) that allows counties to invest American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) dollars in a broad range of transportation infrastructure projects. Join for the third in a series of information sessions where NACo will walk through key features of Treasury’s Interim Final Rule for the ARPA SLFRF and how counties can effectively take advantage of the new flexibilities and invest these dollars at the local level.

Defining and Building Capacity for Disaster Mitigation
SEPTEMBER 20, 2023, 3:00 P.M. TO 4:15 P.M.          REGISTRATION

Counties and other local governments are at the frontlines of extreme climate-related events, leading the immediate disaster response and recovery, despite the availability of internal infrastructure and resources. While disaster resilience is an intergovernmental responsibility, the capacity of local governments to prepare, respond and recover is critical to mitigating the loss and damage caused by disasters.

This National Preparedness Month, please join NACo for an engaging discussion of the key elements of capacity for disaster resilience. Speakers will highlight how to build and sustain local capacity to secure funds, staffing and partnerships, drawing on findings from an intergovernmental roundtable convened by NACo and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The 2023 Roundtable Report on Building Local Capacity for Disaster Mitigation can be downloaded here.

New Options to Combat Summer Hunger: What Counties Need to Know
SEPTEMBER 20, 2023, 1:00 P.M.                                    REGISTRATION
Summer hunger impacts too many children when they lose access to nutritious school meals. But thanks to bipartisan action by Congress last year, state and local governments have two powerful new tools to fight hunger and better meet the nutritional needs of children during the summer months: “grab and go” meals for eligible children in certain rural areas and, starting in 2024, the permanent nationwide “Summer EBT” program, which will provide benefits for low-income households with children to purchase food over the summer. Join NACo and representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) for a webinar reviewing these new programs, including recent guidance and strategies for county governments to support implementation to ensure that all eligible children access this new, critical support.
Federal Nexus: Using Federal Resources to Support Housing
SEPTEMBER 25, 2023, 1:00 P.M. TO 2:00 P.M.          REGISTRATION
Counties and the federal government work together to support local communities in addressing housing affordability. Federal funding is used by counties to administer housing programs and assist low-income residents. In this session, three former housing task force members will discuss actions that counties have undertaken that exemplify effective use of federal funding to support housing.
Responding to Ransomware Attacks
SEPTEMBER 26, 2023, 1:00 P.M. TO 2:00 P.M.          REGISTRATION
As cyber extortion, including ransomware, continues to impact virtually every sector, and threat actors increase their extortion demands, the need for an effective incident response (IR) plan becomes more imperative. After over 20 years of incident response, Sylint has developed an IR program that helps counties respond to and recover from cyber extortion incidents. This webinar will cover the 7 crucial steps to address these incidents and provide a framework to minimize downtime, reduce impact, and enable continuity.
NACo Information Series on Treasury’s ARPA Flexibility Guidance: Relief from Natural Disasters
SEPTEMBER 27, 2023, 2:00 P.M. TO 3:00 P.M.          REGISTRATION
On August 10, the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) released their Interim Final Rule (IFR) for the bipartisan State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (i.e. Cornyn/Padilla Amendment) that allows counties to invest American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) dollars in emergency relief from natural disasters that have occurred, are expected to occur imminently of to occur in the future. Join NACo for the second in a series of information sessions where we will walk through key features of Treasury’s Interim Final Rule for the ARPA SLFRF and how counties can effectively take advantage of the new flexibilities and invest these dollars at the local level.
How Overloaded County IT Organizations can Address Traditional and New AI-Generated Cyber Threats
SEPTEMBER 28, 2023, 1:00 P.M. TO 2:00 P.M.          REGISTRATION

County IT organizations are already overloaded dealing with cyber threats that could result in data breaches, loss of system access resulting in the unavailability of critical services, and more. New cyber threats generated by AI or chat add additional complexity on top of everything else. Celerium just completed a successful four-month pilot project with NACo that explored new ways of automatically defending counties against cyber threats. This webinar will provide important information to help counties understand the emerging threats they face and how to address them:

*The evolution from traditional to new emerging threats.
*How IT organizations can address or even reduce the average time to detect a data breach (IBM research found an average of 207 days (6.9 months) to detect a breach).
*The need for county executive visibility into cyber compromise activity, which could result in a lack of trust with county residents as well as larger legal impacts.
*How overloaded IT departments can easily assess and actively defend against cyber compromises and emerging threats.
*Brief summary of Celerium’s successful cybersecurity pilot with NACo.

Unable to attend the live webinar? Visit NACo Education on Demand for previously recorded trainings.