Technical Assistance ToolkitStep 1: Analyze Needs and Gaps
Before making decisions about the structure of your agency’s TA program, it is advisable to conduct an evaluation of needs and gaps that the TA could address, as well as any partners doing similar or complementary work with whom you might coordinate . In some cases, this process can involve significant public outreach, data analysis, and review of past TA efforts. The sections below provide further guidance on strategies to determine TA needs and gaps.
Evaluate Barriers and Community Assets
Early in the process of evaluating needs and gaps, you should engage other program staff to identify barriers and challenges, review past TA efforts, and consider agency and program goals related to supporting local entities. Local challenges accessing state investment can vary from community to community but often revolve around the following issue areas:
- Lack of awareness and understanding of program goals and eligible projects
- Lack of local agency staff or organizational capacity such as staff time, financial resources, and expertise to apply for grants
- Lack of relationships across local agencies, partner organizations, and/or community groups
Understanding these barriers and any others specific to the communities you serve can help narrow in on the scope of services that would best serve priority communities through a TA program.
In addition to evaluating barriers under-resourced communities face, it is also important to identify assets and strengths. It may help to shape the TA program to assist under-resourced communities in identifying existing competencies and assets, and then leverage those strengths to build long-term capacity. For example, TA providers may be able to help jurisdictions develop non-traditional partnerships with local organizations, such as community-based organizations, universities, hospitals, businesses, foundations, or other entities that can help build local capacity. Resources on Asset-Based Community Development may be helpful to develop this approach to TA.
Evaluate Past Performance
If the program you are working on has had previous funding cycles, considering lessons learned from that experience can be helpful. Program staff and grant reviewers from previous grant cycles can provide insights into past applications’ strengths and weaknesses, which can help to understand where applicants need the most support. Engaging with program staff, reviewers, and past TA providers as you develop your grant program guidelines can also identify opportunities to develop further guidance or streamline application processes for the funding program itself.
If your agency has ever offered TA for the program you are working on, or other similar programs, assessing the outcomes of those efforts can help inform the development of a new TA contract. TA providers often summarize their experiences working with TA recipients in final reports or memos to agency staff, which can help guide the design of this subsequent TA effort. Understanding successes as well as opportunities for improvement within past TA efforts can maximize the impact of subsequent TA by replicating effective practices and avoiding those that were less successful.
Evaluate State, Agency, and Program Goals
Ensuring the advancement of State, agency, and program goals related to supporting priority populations is critical to the development of any TA program. Common desired outcomes that program staff may choose to consider in shaping a TA program include:
- Funding projects in communities that have not historically received similar funding
- Achieving more equitable and/or geographic distribution of funding
- Implementing holistic approaches that reduce unintended consequences
- Engaging under-represented populations within project development
- Developing stronger, more community-engaged projects
- Building relationships and trust between the State and local entities
- Supporting peer-to-peer networking amongst priority populations
- Supporting implementation of new initiatives and objectives within programs
- Furthering the State’s commitment to addressing key issues areas such as affordable housing or climate change
- Advancing racial equity
Perform Technical Analysis
Beyond consulting with other program staff and evaluating agency priorities, conducting a technical analysis can help you gauge the need for TA and understand how to best shape the program. Technical evaluations such as geospatial analysis of past applicants can help you narrow in on more specific needs to address with different forms of TA. For example, if an analysis of past grant applications reveals that certain priority communities did not submit applications, TA focusing capacity building and program education on those communities may be effective. On the other hand, if you find that certain communities have applied but have been unsuccessful in competing for funding, application assistance may be more effective to support those communities. Finally, if despite being awarded, certain communities have struggled to bring projects to fruition or have faced challenges with reporting, implementation TA may be necessary. Approaches such as Racial Equity: Getting to Results can help provide a helpful framework for decision-making as you assess your findings.
Assess Complementary TA Efforts
Before designing a TA program, it is important to understand the landscape of existing TA programs to help identify opportunities for your TA to fill gaps and coordinate with complementary efforts. Such collaboration can help streamline, coordinate, and align technical assistance across agencies to stretch funding and maximize the impact of TA. For example, if you are looking to provide outreach and application assistance for one grant program that funds transit infrastructure, it may be more effective to partner with other programs or agencies to offer outreach and assistance related to other transportation or green infrastructure grant programs as well. If a formal partnership on a TA contract is not feasible, it is still important to coordinate outreach to the extent possible and to ensure that potential TA recipients understand the breadth of TA options available to them. Taking into account that TA is available not only at the State level, but also through Federal, regional or local governments as well as foundations, non-profits, and other entities that can provide a more holistic picture of the relevant TA offerings that may complement those provided through your agency.
Conduct Public Engagement
Public engagement should inform any TA program. Engaging potential TA recipients and other key informants prior to the development of a TA program can help build awareness and trust. Early engagement can also help identify local barriers and assets in order to ensure that the TA effectively addresses community needs. Further, early engagement can help you develop a sense of how great the need for TA is and to appropriately tailor the scope of services to meet and/or prioritize that need. For example, surveying or interviewing past grant applicants about what parts of the application process were most challenging and which ones were simple can help define a scope of TA services that responds to applicants’ needs. There are many ways to meaningfully engage potential applicants and other key informants before developing a TA program, including conducting key informant interviews, focus groups, listening sessions, and surveys. See the Outreach and Engagement Section for more guidance related to public engagement.
California Climate Investments has also developed “Best Practices for Community Engagement and Building Equitable Projects” that includes more detail on other public engagement best practices, and many other helpful resources and guides are available through the Institute for Local Government, and the International Association for Public Participation.
Once you complete this gap analysis, you are ready to move into the goal-setting phase for your TA program. While in some cases, it may not be possible to complete an in-depth technical analysis before designing the TA program due to timing constraints, doing as much analysis as possible before launching the program, and then closely monitoring progress and requesting feedback during the project term will enable adaptation to emerging issues or needs. See the Evaluation Section for more detailed guidance on monitoring and evaluation.