Underserved TA:
Approach & Services
Our Approach
Our approach to technical assistance is rooted in our collective lived-experiences, expertise, and knowledge, including what we hear from partners and grantees themselves doing the boots-on-the-ground work everyday advocating and helping survivors heal and feel safe.
This technical assistance is provided in various ways, including individualized consultation for issue-spotting and troubleshooting, knowledge and skill-building opportunities, information sharing, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
Our TA Foundations
Our TA (Technical Assistance) Foundation refers to the unifying principles always guiding our approach and services. The foundations that are essential to how we provide our technical assistance and training and that we encourage within the grantees’ own work are:
- Peer-to-peer learning
- Community engagement
- Understanding impacts of intersectionality
- Trauma-informed approach
- Trust-building
Our Services
Our team strives to provide services that are responsive to the needs of the grantees we work with, and the communities they serve. Our ability to provide these services is made possible by our partnerships, our combined strengths, knowledge, and experiences; and the collective wisdom of survivors and the advocates who have been doing the work to end violence and abuse long before us.
As the comprehensive technical assistance provider for the OVW-funded Underserved Program, our team provides the grantees of this program the following services:
Grantee Orientation
Each new cohort attends a Grantee Orientation, designed to provide relevant information about grant administration and financial management. Orientations also include an introduction to the OVW and TA Provider Teams who will support grantees throughout their grant cycle.
Regular and On-Demand Individualized Consultations
Each Underserved grantee organization is assigned an Underserved Technical Assistance (TA) Point of Contact (TA POC) from the ALSO UTAP Team to provide individualized technical assistance throughout the grant cycle. TA POCs provide both regularly scheduled and on-demand technical assistance based on each grantee’s needs and priorities. This assistance can be virtual or in-person.
TA POC assignments are thoughtfully determined based on a range of factors, including cultural, linguistic, or other relevant affinities with the grantee’s underserved population(s), as well as the TA POC’s experience, expertise, and knowledge of issues that may be particularly relevant to the grantee and its work.
Individualized technical assistance consultations are available to support grantees in a variety of ways, including:
- Brainstorming and problem-solving around program ideas, challenges, emerging needs, or new initiatives;
- Supporting program development and implementation, including strengthening approaches, processes, and strategies;
- Reviewing and providing feedback on products, materials, protocols, and other deliverables being developed for OVW review/approval;
- Sharing promising practices, resources, and approaches from the field and from other organizations serving underserved survivors;
- Identifying strategies to strengthen and enhance services for underserved survivors and their children; and
- Serving as a thought partner to help grantees navigate programmatic questions, challenges, and opportunities throughout the grant cycle.
Peer-to-Peer Opportunities
Peer-to-peer opportunities are facilitated spaces for grantees to collaborate with each other for mutual support and targeted learning on a particular topic.
Occurring both one-on-one or in cohort settings; in short-term or long-term timeframes, they may be organized around populations served by the grantees involved or around a particular topic for learning.
Other virtual learning opportunities for grantees may take the form of topical webinars, in both standalone and series format. These events can include guest speakers, Underserved grantees, UTAP team members, and other TA providers and subject matter experts. Being virtual, these events provide access to grantees in any location.
All-Grantee Institute
Institutes are annual convenings of all current Underserved grantees organized around increasing knowledge, skills, and connections for each other, the UTAP Team, and OVW. These institutes emphasize skill-building in core program areas of outreach and services.
Online Resources
Online resources are shared through a dedicated website and Grantee portal, monthly e-newsletter, and written products/tools designed specifically for Underserved grantees.
