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Office of Community Services skip to primary page contentIncreasing the Capacity of Individuals, Families and Communities

Technical Assistance

Delivering Training Overview | Developing a Comprehensive Plan

Providing Technical Assistance Overview

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Diagnosis

In this stage, someone with expertise sets up an interview to gather more information. This interview can happen face-to-face or over the telephone. The purpose of the interview is to ascertain whether the presenting need is the real need and to determine the best course of action for providing technical assistance.

Just like in an emergency room, the presenting problem of the patient is often just a symptom, not the real problem. Here is what happened to one TA provider in the diagnosis phase.

Steps to an Interview

  1. Begin by getting to know the caller individually.
  2. Then ask questions about the organization—its history, mission, current challenges and staff.
  3. Clarify the specific nature of their request.
  4. Probe to see if there are other root causes that should be addressed.
An intermediary in a major city received a request for technical assistance in fundraising. Donations had been steadily declining over the past few years, and the organization couldn’t figure out why. Unlike other organizations serving their part of the city, they had a relatively young donor base. Their donors were not retiring, moving or dying. They were primarily urban professionals.

The representative from the intermediary began by asking general questions about the organization. Their mission was offering free counseling and behavioral health services to the residents of a specific neighborhood with high-rise public housing. One of their challenges was that their clients were moving. The city was tearing down all of the Federally subsidized housing units and dispersing the residents. All of the donors knew about the highly controversial demolition through newspapers and television. Knowing that their charity would no longer be needed in a few years, they were beginning to redirect their giving elsewhere. No amount of technical assistance in fundraising techniques would be able to help this organization. They needed either a new mission or a new territory.

After you have ascertained that the presenting problem is the real problem (or discovered a different root problem and you know that you can respond in a helpful way), then determine the best course of action for treatment. Not every TA effort requires you to travel to their office and give them advice in a face-to-face meeting. You can provide TA directly or indirectly. You can provide it onsite or offsite. Think of different kinds of TA falling into one of four categories.

Indirect technical assistance is a service you provide by giving them media or tools of some kind. For example, you may give them a manual, refer to them to a web-based TA site or connect them to staff in another organization.

Direct technical assistance is a service you provide face-to-face or over the telephone to personally apply expertise to their problem or need area. Direct TA can be administered either onsite or offsite.

Onsite technical assistance is a form of direct TA that requires you to deliver the assistance at the organization’s location. For example, if you are coaching a staff person on implementing a best practice, you will probably have to be there to teach and observe. Being onsite would also be necessary for conducting a program assessment, benchmarking activities or training of several staff.

Offsite technical assistance is a form of direct TA that does not require you to travel to the organization’s location. Usually it involves sharing information that will enhance performance. You can do this by telephone, email, fax or mail.

When considering technical assistance, the first category that usually comes to mind is direct technical assistance delivered onsite. However, this is the most resource intensive for you, the intermediary, so you should reserve it for last. Direct TA over the telephone can be equally effective for some interventions and eliminates the time and expense of travel. Indirect can be the least expensive mode. Immediate TA during the intake phase is indirect TA, yet it is usually well-received because you are giving callers what they need in a timely manner. The diagnosis phase is complete when you have summarized what the organization will do and what you, the intermediary, will do. If you have agreed to provide direct technical assistance, onsite or offsite, then you move on to the treatment phase.

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Delivering Training Overview | Developing a Comprehensive Plan