MACo 2025 County Innovation Award Winners Champion Public Safety & Diversity

MACo has announced the recipients of the prestigious County Innovation Award.

The County Innovation Award was established to recognize superb and leading-edge county programs that improve the overall quality of life and service delivery for a county’s residents. The Honorable Ingrid Turner, Prince George’s County Circuit Court Associate Judge, MACo Past President, and former Prince George’s County Council Member, instituted this award during her term as MACo President in 2012. The award is now a collaboration of the Academy for Excellence in Local Governance and MACo, with support from the Local Government Insurance Trust.

The County Innovation Award is issued to one urban county and one rural county each year. All nominees were impressive, addressing issues in their communities and serving the needs of residents in ways that were indeed “outside the box.” Details are below if you want to learn more about each nominated program.

MACo and the Academy for Excellence in Local Governance are pleased to announce our two award winners and nominees, as listed below.

AWARD WINNERS

Rural – St. Mary’s County Health Hub– St. Mary’s County

The St. Mary’s County Health Hub improves access to health and wellness services for the entire county’s population while advancing community equity across sectors. The Hub offers walk-in behavioral health evaluations, crisis stabilization, a jail diversion program, youth mentoring, employment support, and many other community services that address social determinants of health. The result is comprehensive, holistic care that approaches the whole person within the context of their social and community environments. The Hub innovatively leverages public and private partnerships, along with a unique, customized technology, to provide the entire county with a portal to community services.

At its very core, the Health Hub advocates for the essential values of every community member in St. Mary’s County. By recognizing that health and wellness are the result of many interrelated aspects of a person’s life, the Hub serves as a model for how the local community innovatively leverages technology and multi-sector partnerships to advance health equity. Recently, the Health Hub was recognized as a 2024 Model Practice by the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Urban –Southern County Taskforce– Harford County

For decades, residents and businesses in southern Harford County asked for help to revitalize communities characterized by low-income households, deteriorated roads and public spaces, dilapidated rental properties and storefronts, and concentrations of crime. Recognizing that the southern area was not experiencing the same quality of life enjoyed by the rest of the county, Harford County Government formed the Southern County Task Force (SCTF) to align governmental and private resources, rather than acting alone as a function of county government, to address challenges, fill gaps in services, and engage the community with action items based on data to inform policy decisions.

Through the SCTF, each sector brings unique strengths: the government has access to data, expertise, and resources; businesses bring jobs, investments, and a desire for improvement, and community members bring passion, “sweat equity,” and access to certain grant funding. The results in Harford County are tangible in the form of a cleaner environment, safer roads, better lighting and other public safety improvements, increased programming and participation in youth activities, and well-maintained parks and rental properties. What cannot be measured, but equally important, is the community pride felt by residents and businesses because they are active partners in our shared success.

RURAL NOMINEES

URBAN NOMINEES

MACo’s Winter Conference, “Local Leadership, Lasting Impact: Shaping What’s Next,” will be held at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Hotel in Cambridge, MD, on December 10-12, 2025. 

Learn more about MACo’s Winter Conference: