Lessons From the Assessment for Learning Project: Strategies for Building an Authentic Learning Community

Supporting Community Partners in Reducing HIV-Related Health Disparities: Technical Assistance Across a Spectrum of Intensity

“…Open-ended responses to the evaluation survey questions were generally positive, supporting the quantitative results. The primary codes that emerged in the data analysis were consistent with a conceptualization of technical assistance posited by Social Policy Research Associates, 9 with a spectrum of "light touch" to "heavy touch" based on the depth of the TA request and the amount of effort (i.e., the proportion of time and resources expended in any given timeframe).…”

“…This supports the consideration for "TA as a continuum" focused on content vs relationships. 9,12 Our strengths included providing concrete, practical help (e.g., sharing journal articles, study instruments, and data), social media promotion to increase the reach of programs, facilitating academic-community collaborations (e.g., CABs and YAPs), and predominantly supporting the research process (e.g., publication/proposal feedback, mentoring, and linkage). Areas of improvement that we identified from respondents include the following: increasing budget to hire more staff and increase TA efforts, wider advertising of our TA resources to community nonprofits, providing didactic courses, consultation in developing research-to-community education materials, and ongoing research project support for building dissemination services and products.…”