|
Session Title: Evaluating Technical Assistance for Capacity Building: Learning When to Lead and When to Follow
|
|
Panel Session 309 to be held in Suwannee 12 on Thursday, Nov 12, 1:40 PM to 3:10 PM
|
|
Sponsored by the Organizational Learning and Evaluation Capacity Building TIG
|
| Chair(s): |
| Marilyn L Ray, Finger Lakes Law & Social Policy Center Inc, mlr17@cornell.edu
|
| Discussant(s):
|
| Judith Ottoson, Independent Consultant, jottoson@comcast.net
|
| Abstract:
Capacity building efforts are important to the evaluation and consulting fields. As accountability requirements have increased in recent years in social and nonprofit programs, interest in capacity building has increased commensurately. The major strategy for increasing capacity has been training. However, research indicates that training alone is insufficient to achieve long-term change (e.g., Ringwalt, et al, 2002; Hall & Hord, 2005; Fixsen, et al, 2005) and follow-up technical assistance is recommended to optimize potential for change. We do not know what constitutes best practices for technical assistance in social programs and little literature reports results from evaluations of different types of technical assistance approaches. The panel presentation will help begin to fill the gap in the literature with results from four capacity building efforts. Challenges from the study sites, including resources and measurement will be presented. To conclude, an expert discussant will remark on the works presented.
|
|
The Added Value of Offering Technical Assistance Following a Training Program
|
| Dana Keener, ICF Macro, dana.c.keener@macrointernational.com
|
|
Technical assistance (TA) is growing in popularity as a strategy for capacity building, but little is known about the added value of offering TA relative to other capacity building efforts which may be less costly (such as training). This presentation will describe four elements of TA identified from the literature that may be linked to its effectiveness: (1) relationship quality; (2) individualization; (3) proactive design; and (4) dosage. In addition, results of a longitudinal, quasi-experimental evaluation study designed to assess the relative impact of training and TA components of a capacity building intervention for violence prevention professionals will be shared along with recommendations for future TA programs. This presentation may be especially useful to those who design and/or evaluate capacity building interventions and to those who allocate funds for capacity building.
|
|
|
Training and Technical Assistance Approaches to Building Prevention Capacity
|
| Catherine A Lesesne, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clesesne@cdc.gov
|
|
Capacity building projects employing training and technical assistance (T/TA) strategies are continually responding to challenging environments. It is important that capacity building efforts have clearly articulated desired outcomes as well as the potential for sustainability despite real-world challenges such as staff turnover. However, little is known about the best practices for capacity building T/TA. Evaluations of capacity building programs need to address the relative success of proactive and reactive T/TA strategies in meeting stated capacity outcomes. This presentation will describe the T/TA strategies (proactive and reactive) being used in a multi-site, federally-funded, capacity building project to build prevention capacity in the area of teen pregnancy prevention. The project includes 3 national, 9 state, and 4 regional technical assistance grantees all using a variety of approaches to capacity building.
| |
|
A Proactive Approach to Evaluation Technical Assistance
|
| Jennifer L Duffy, South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, jduffy@teenpregnancysc.org
|
| Polly Edwards-Padgett, South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, jduffy@teenpregnancysc.org
|
| Mary Prince, South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, mprince@teenpregnancysc.org
|
| Shannon Flynn, South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, jduffy@teenpregnancysc.org
|
| Erin Johnson, South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, jduffy@teenpregnancysc.org
|
|
Experience gained from working with community-based organizations has demonstrated that traditional training and reactive technical assistance (TA) do not achieve the level of organizational capacity necessary to sustain on-going evaluation activities, especially when an organization has limited resources. This presentation describes how proactive TA was introduced into an existing model of training and TA to build organizational evaluation capacity. Prior to starting proactive TA, in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 community-based organizations to assess evaluation needs. Evaluation materials and user-friendly, flexible forms were developed to help organizations implement their evaluation strategies including logic models, goals and objectives, evaluation plans, process and outcome measures, data management and analysis, report writing, and using data for continuous quality improvement. Results from the needs assessment, TA dosage, satisfaction with TA, and lessons learned from the field also will be discussed.
| |
|
A Case Study Report From a Technical Assistance Effort
|
| Marilyn L Ray, Finger Lakes Law & Social Policy Center Inc, mlr17@cornell.edu
|
|
Training, follow-up technical assistance and capacity building go hand-in-hand and are in growing demand, yet we know little about best-practices for technical assistance. This paper will report preliminary findings from a case study of follow-up technical assistance provided to nine state and three regional organizations to improve their capacity to train on science-based programs found successful for preventing teen pregnancy. Training of grantees on a science-based program took place in February 2009 and follow-up technical assistance is being provided until late August 2009. Results will be reported from self-administered pre/post surveys of the grantees, logs with amounts and types of technical assistance provided, and semi-structured interviews with both the recipients of the technical assistance and the technical assistance providers. Also discussed will be a number of challenges to measuring the change resulting from this training and technical assistance capacity building effort.
| |