There’s a centuries-old quote that reads, “In vain have you acquired knowledge if you have not imparted it to others.”

For the past few months, the CSAC communications staff has been on the road acquiring knowledge about county best practices. We have gone from the roads of Los Angeles County to the drug courts of Sacramento County. We have learned about a youth ecology corps in Sonoma County and a collaborative technology center in Nevada County. Our travels have taken us up and down the Golden State, from the rural byways of Humboldt County to the superhighways of the Inland Empire.

And now it’s our job to impart the knowledge we have learned about the innovative and cost-effective programs our counties have developed. Over the course of the next 10 weeks, we will release 16 videos and blog postings featuring best practices developed in 14 counties.

We start this journey on Thursday when we release the first of a four-part series to spotlight National County Government Month. This year’s theme focuses on infrastructure and we will do just that during the course of April. We will look at four distinctly different types of infrastructure: energy, broadband, flood control and roads.

From there, we will move on to the county best practices we honored in the 2014 CSAC Challenge Awards. The programs we will feature run the gamut, from an urban farm in Alameda County to prison-related social services program in Lassen County. We will tackle issues ranging from technology and volunteerism to climate change and mental health.

It’s been an amazing journey learning about these programs and the county staff behind them. And we at CSAC, as well as the member counties we are featuring, want you to learn as much about these programs and their effectiveness as possible. And if you have a best practice in your county, let us know by entering this year’s Challenge Awards program.

So sit back and enjoy the journey with us starting Thursday.