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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

New Approaches to Technical Assistance in Community-Based Health Promotion

Ayana N. Perkins, MA, Kimberly Jeffries-Leonard, PhD, Erika Symonette, MS, Erika Taylor, PhD, Julia Hoglund, MPH, Lynwood McAllister, MA, and Shannon Hernandez, MBA. The MayaTech Corporation, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 900, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 301-587-1600, aperkins@mayatech.com

Issues: The provision of material and training assistance helps to strengthen and advance public health education and health promotion. These technical assistance (TA) services are essential in assisting programs reach their target audience. Additionally, they are best used when the diverse needs of community-based organizations are considered and evaluated.

Description: The utilization of TA services is often influenced by factors such as organizational culture, access and knowledge of information technology, and availability of time and resources. These factors are not always apparent and may appear as if an organization does not need TA. By integrating collaboration and evaluation into its TA model, The MayaTech Corporation has been able to identify influential program elements and improve its model. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, this session will discuss findings of working with community-based organizations involved in public health promotion.

Lessons Learned: Organizational maturity affects the frequency of TA requests. Providing program staff background information prior to training help to facilitate learning and improve ability to implement program innovation. Data gathered from site visits are instrumental in tailoring of technical assistance services.

Recommendations: Engage program staff and consultants in evaluation of technical assistance process. Conduct follow-up assessments to measure impact of technical assistance.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to

Keywords: Community-Based Public Health,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Communities Working Together to Improve Health

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA