Technical Assistance
Delivering
Training Overview | Developing
a Comprehensive Plan
Providing Technical Assistance Overview
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5Evaluation
In this phase, you check your TA procedures to see if you are being
effective and working in an efficient manner. In the area of providing
technical assistance, you need solid, clear, streamlined procedures
to make sure that time is not being wasted for either party (you
or the organizations you serve).
Within 30 days of an onsite visit, call or email the organization and ask for feedback on how the onsite visit went and how the information or skills are being used. Ask for suggestions about how the delivery of your technical assistance procedures could be improved. Be prepared. If they are having difficulties, this contact may also create an opportunity to deliver more direct TA.
Periodically, sit down with everyone on your staff who provides technical assistance, including your "first responder," and review who is calling and their needs. Examine which procedures are working well for you, as an intermediary, and which are not. Talk about what you are learning from other intermediaries or ideas you have come across in books, journal articles or other research. It’s possible to glean a good evaluation data from your own records and experience.
You will also want to know if your efforts are ultimately making a difference. This will mean pursuing outcome measurement of your technical assistance. (For more information, see the Measuring Outcomes guidebook, part of the National Resource Center’s Intermediary Development Series.)
Delivering
Training Overview | Developing
a Comprehensive Plan