Larimer County Department of Health and Environment Earns National Recognition for Innovative Public Health Programs
The Larimer County Department of Health and Environment (LCDHE) has received national recognition from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) for developing innovative programs that address critical public health needs and improve the health and well-being of Larimer County residents.
Each year, NACCHO's Model and Promising Practice Awards recognize local health departments that demonstrate innovative, effective, and replicable approaches to public health challenges. Among more than 3,000 local governmental health departments nationwide, only 42 programs were recognized as Model Practices and 61 as Promising Practices in 2026. The awards were presented during the NACCHO360 Annual Conference on July 16, 2026 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Model Practices are programs demonstrating exemplary and replicable qualities in response to a critical local public health need, and Promising Practices have demonstrated exciting approaches and strategies to local public health challenges that are on track to becoming Model Practices.
LCDHE received recognition for the following programs:
Model Practice: Equity in a Community Health Improvement Plan: The RAPID Framework
Promising Practice: Cultivating a Resilient Workforce: A Trauma-Informed and Equity-Centered Framework
About the award-winning programs
The Model Practice Award recognizes LCDHE's Equity in a Community Health Improvement Plan: The RAPID Framework, an innovative approach that embeds health equity into community health improvement planning. The framework helps public health organizations move from identifying health disparities to taking meaningful, measurable action in partnership with the community, creating a more equitable and responsive approach to improving health outcomes.
The Promising Practice Award recognizes Cultivating a Resilient Workforce: A Trauma-Informed and Equity-Centered Framework, which supports employee well-being while strengthening the department's ability to serve the community. By integrating trauma-informed principles, equity, and organizational resilience into workplace culture, the framework helps build a healthier, more resilient public health workforce prepared to respond to current and future challenges.
"We don't do this work to win awards, we do it because every person in our community deserves the opportunity to live a healthy life," said Tom Gonzales, Executive Director of the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment. "It's an honor to have our work recognized nationally, but what matters most is that these approaches help us better serve our community. We hope they can also help other health departments improve health outcomes across the country."
The national recognition highlights LCDHE's continued commitment to advancing innovative, equity-centered public health practices that improve the lives of Larimer County residents while offering practical approaches that can be adapted by other health departments nationwide.
For more information about the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment, visit www.larimer.gov/health.
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