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Technical Assistance Resource Center (TARC) TARC Mission: To provide Making Connections site teams, local partners, residents, community organizations and others with technical assistance that helps build capacity and strategies to strengthen families in tough neighborhoods. In the late 1990's the Annie E. Casey Foundation launched a major initiative called Neighborhood Transformation/Family Development (NT/FD) with the prediction that opportunities for disadvantaged children to have a better future can be improved by focusing on strengthening families and neighborhoods. Through the Making Connections initiative, the Foundation is working intensively with 10 communities around the country to demonstrate that this is possible. To support this important investment, the Foundation is committed to identifying and working with a diverse group of Technical Assistance (TA) providers to maximize the ability of these communities to achieve the results they are seeking for children, families and neighborhoods. The Foundation's Technical Assistance Resource Center (TARC) has worked with the Making Connections sites to develop an approach to technical assistance that is: 1) demand-driven, 2) co-designed with those requesting help, and 3) tightly linked to the community capacities the Making Connections sites are working to build, and the results they seek to achieve. It has become evident that for this approach to meet its full potential, the Foundation needs to partner with a core group of trained TA providers who are knowledgeable about Making Connections and know how to deliver TA in ways that are consistent with TARC's results-oriented and principle-driven approach. In addition, given the diversity of the families living in the Making Connections neighborhoods, TARC works to assure that an equally diverse set of organizations and people are available to provide assistance to the sites. Over the past two years Making Connections Providence has been exploring how to develop a local TA infrastructure. A primary goal in developing this local TA infrastructure has been to build the capacity of Making Connections Providence neighborhood residents and partners whose work impacts their neighborhoods. Types of Technical Assistance: Most technical assistance falls under five main categories: Information Scans - on promising approaches, best practices and potential solutions which may be followed up with on-site visits to learn first hand from peers. Skill Building Sessions - to help build and sharpen skills to strengthen families at the neighborhood level. Peer to Peer Matches - serve as in-depth learning experiences. Cross-Site Learning - Topical sessions Expert Assistance, Consultation, Coaching and Facilitation. |
