How Technical Assistance Providers Can Advance Equity in Implementation

The Col­lab­o­ra­tive for Imple­men­ta­tion Prac­tice at the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na at Chapel Hill School of Social Work recent­ly released its Equi­table Imple­men­ta­tion Guide. The resource explains how to pro­vide tech­ni­cal assis­tance (TA) that helps social change lead­ers use imple­men­ta­tion sci­ence to improve the lives of chil­dren, young peo­ple and fam­i­lies in a way that also advances equity.

The pub­li­ca­tion is a com­pan­ion piece to Bring­ing Equi­ty to Imple­men­ta­tion, a spe­cial sup­ple­ment to the Stan­ford Social Inno­va­tion Review, which pro­vides lessons for inte­grat­ing the per­spec­tives and lead­er­ship of com­mu­ni­ties into the poli­cies and prac­tices meant to serve them. Both resources were pro­duced with fund­ing from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Cen­ter­ing on the six essen­tial fac­tors of equi­table imple­men­ta­tion iden­ti­fied in the ear­li­er pub­li­ca­tion, the Equi­table Imple­men­ta­tion Guide is geared toward tech­ni­cal assis­tance providers. As they work with com­mu­ni­ties, agen­cies and fun­ders, the guide can assist them in devel­op­ing strate­gies that advance equi­ty in the imple­men­ta­tion of social programs.

The guide con­tains three prac­ti­cal tools:

• A Tech­ni­cal Assis­tance Provider Reflec­tion Tool allows providers to reflect and assess their own capac­i­ty to part­ner effec­tive­ly with com­mu­ni­ties and fun­ders to advance equi­table implementation.
• An Equi­table Imple­men­ta­tion Prac­tice Resource offers sug­ges­tions and resources for providers inter­est­ed in putting equi­table imple­men­ta­tion into action with com­mu­ni­ty part­ners and orga­ni­za­tions, based on the ten rec­om­men­da­tions iden­ti­fied in the spe­cial supplement’s clos­ing arti­cle, ​“Equi­table Imple­men­ta­tion at Work.”
• A Tech­ni­cal Assis­tance Provider and Fund­ing Agency Part­ner­ship Reflec­tion Guide helps providers align their efforts to advance equi­table imple­men­ta­tion at any stage — either on their own or with funders.

“With their exper­tise and abil­i­ty to influ­ence part­ners and process­es, TA providers play an impor­tant role in our con­tin­u­ing focus on expand­ing equi­table prac­tices for chil­dren, youth and fam­i­lies,” says Ilene Berman, direc­tor of Casey’s Evi­dence-Based Prac­tice Group. ​“This guide will help them reflect and act with an inten­tion­al empha­sis on equi­ty in all their work to facil­i­tate change.”

Learn more about advanc­ing equi­ty through implementation