1. Home
  2. Tools & Resources
  3. Toolkit
  4. Resources

Technical Assistance ToolkitResources

The following section offers two types of resources to help agencies develop impactful technical assistance (TA) programs. First, it includes checklists, templates, and sample scopes of work and deliverables to help inform the development of TA programs. Second, is a library of guidance documents and reports that can help program staff delve into best practices related to TA.

Resources for TA Program Development & Implementation

The following section provides resources state agencies can use when developing or implementing a technical assistance program.

Checklists

Templates

  • Outreach Tracker: is a sample spreadsheet that can be used to compile contacts and support targeted outreach.
  • Q&A Tracker: is a tool to compile programmatic questions and coordinate responses provided by the TA team
  • TA Check-in Agenda: is a sample agenda with standing agenda items to support close coordination and collaboration between agency staff and the TA team

Sample Scopes of Work

The following documents are examples of technical assistance scopes of work from previous or active third-party technical assistance contracts.

Sample Deliverables

Technical assistance should result in the development of actionable resources, whether delivered through direct application or implementation support or through an online clearinghouse. The following materials provide examples of resources state agencies developed through a specific TA program or for a specific challenge that communities across the state are facing.

  • The California Department of Transportation hosts the Active Transportation Resource Center, which offers grant writing trainings and tools that help with developing and implementing active transportation projects.
  • SGC’s Partners Advancing Climate Equity Program is a capacity building program for frontline community leaders. The pilot round resulted in the development of an array of resources that organizations can use to conduct a Community Needs Assessment and/or implement a similar program on their own. Resources include a Community Needs Assessment Toolkit, various facilitator guides, and key recordings and presentations.
  • The Office of Planning & Research hosts the Adaptation Clearinghouse, which is searchable database of resources for local, regional, and statewide climate adaptation planning and decision-making. Among many resources and tools, the Adaptation Clearinghouse features plan alignment guides for wildfire resilience, flood-after-fire resilience, and coastal hazard resilience.
 

Diving Deeper

The following list of resources is meant to supplement these Guidelines, providing additional detail on specific topics that were not addressed in detail or offering actionable checklists or templates that can be used when

Community Engagement

  • Best Practices for Community Engagement & Building Successful Projects
    California Air Resources Board
    This document provides guidance for improving responsiveness to the needs of disadvantaged communities, and our mutual goals and best practices. These lessons can be used to incorporate community leadership at many different stages of a program or project.
  • Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning: A Framework
    Movement Strategy Center
    This document provides a framework to community-driven resilience planning and offers useful guiding principles and tools to develop community-driven planning processes.
  • From Community Engagement to Ownership: Tools for the Field with Four Case Studies of Municipal Community-Driven Environmental & Racial Equity Committees
    Urban Sustainability Directors Network
    This document provides a framework of developmental stages from community engagement to ownership. The spectrum can be used as a tool to facilitate community participation in decision-making, and importantly offers clarity on the difference between merely “informing” to “empowering” community members.
  • Making Equity Real in Climate Adaptation and Community Resilience Policies and Grant Programs: A Guidebook
    The Greenlining Institute
    This document offers a four-step guide to making equity real within climate policies and grant programs: embed equity into the mission, build equity into the process, ensure equity outcomes, and measure for equity. While the focus of this document is specifically centered on climate adaptation, the recommendations and steps contained within are applicable to operationalizing equity within any content area.
  • SB 1000 Toolkit: Planning for Healthy Communities
    California Environmental Justice Alliance
    This document offers robust, detailed, and comprehensive strategies for community engagement. While the focus of this document is specifically centered on SB 1000 implementation, it offers many strategies and frameworks that are applicable to equitable community engagement more broadly.
  • Public Engagement Framework
    Institute for Local Government The TIERS Public Engagement Framework and its companion program, the TIERS Learning Lab, provide a step-by-step approach to public engagement, including resources to plan and implement inclusive public engagement.

Contracting

  • State Contracting Manual Volume 1
    California Department of General Services
    This document is provided as a resource to those in California state government who are involved in the state’s contracting process. It provides the policies, procedures, and guidelines to promote sound business decisions and practices in securing necessary services for the state.
  • State Contracting Manual Volume Fi$Cal
    California Department of General Services
    This document is provided as a resource to those persons in California state government who are involved in the State's procurement of non-IT and IT goods and services and are using the FI$Cal (Financial Information System for California). It provides the policies, procedures, and methods to promote sound business decision practices in securing necessary goods and services for the State.
  • California Multiple Award Schedules (CMAS) Guide
    California Department of General Services
    This guide provides helpful information related to the process for executing contracts through CMAS, including an FAQ document.
  • CMAS Contractor Database
    Department of General Services
    A search tool to find CMAS suppliers.

Evaluation

  • Best Practices in Community Based Participatory Practice
    Psychology Applied Research Center at Loyola Marymount University
    The focus of this report is on Community-Based Participatory Practices (CBPP) in the California Department of Public Health’s California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP). The report also provides more general advice based on lessons learned through CRDP, with a focus on community engagement in evaluation.
  • Evaluation Guide: Fundamentals of Evaluating Partnerships
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    This guide provides guidance on approaches to and methods of evaluation to aid in skill building on a wide range of general evaluation topics. Although the guide was developed for use by Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention programs, the information provides useful information on evaluating partnerships for government programs more generally.
  • Logic Model Development Guide
    W.K. Kellogg Foundation
    This guide provides presents a basic introduction to the logic model as an action-oriented tool for program planning and evaluation, including sample logic models, exercises, and examples. It also provides guidance on how to expand a basic logic model to explore and explain the theory of-change that describes the rationale for your program.
  • Introduction to Program Evaluation for Public Health Programs: A Self-Study Guide
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    This document acts as a guide for planning and implementing evaluation activities. In the section titled, “Step 3: Focus on the Evaluation Design”, the CDC provides a series of decision criteria to help readers determine the best evaluation type for their program.
  • Core Performance Standards: Promising Practices for the Design, Delivery, and Evaluation of Training and Technical Assistance
    Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
    This document provides a useful framework for evaluation of TA, as well as guidance and resources to inform the design and delivery of training and TA. While the document focuses on TA related to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s programs, but offers guidance that is broadly applicable to other TA efforts.

Communications

  • How to Develop a Success Story
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    A short guide to highlighting the achievements and progress of a program or activity, including clear steps, style recommendations and examples
  • Communications to Promote Interest
    University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development
    This “Communications to Promote Interest” chapter is part of a broader Community Tool Box created by the University of Kansas, which offers a variety of helpful resources related to community engagement, program delivery, and evaluation. This chapter offers guidance on developing a communications plan, tips for effective communication, and advice on creating a host of communications materials, including press releases, newsletters, websites, and more.