Think of an organization as a neighborhood. A project would involve building a new house in the neighborhood. With “project support,” we’d help build the house, from architectural drawings to installing appliances and helping folks move in. With “technical assistance,” we’d help with a house that was already built or being built - think landscaping or helping install cabinets.

In that sense, projects are full-service & full-cycle, whereas technical assistance is more on an as-needed basis.

Another way of thinking about it is that projects focus on goals, whereas technical assistance - from our involvement - focuses on activities. Providing a training on beginning reading skills (activity) would be technical assistance. Working with an organization to help them build beginning reading skill fluency with their kids (goal) would be a project.

Organizations select and own each project. We can help think through ideas related to projects (see below), but ultimately organizations will know best what is likely to be the most helpful, feasible, and sustainable.

In that sense, each project is organized around a specific organizational goal, such as improving peer communication skills with 2nd graders. These goals are identified and refined through a collaborative assessment process.

Often times our staff are working directly with our partner organizations on projects. However, sometimes we help connect volunteers or outside organizations with our partner organizations. In those situations, we may still be involved in helping to coordinate or manage projects, but the actual provision of services may be from individuals outside of our organization. In this sense, sometimes our role is more one of coordinator & connector, rather than provider.

Regardless of the setup, our partner organizations always know who they’re working with and remain in full control of the project the entire time.

• Building a reading intervention program for primary students

• Developing a program-wide social/emotional learning program

• Setting up a behavior support team that designs individual support plans for children

We anticipate projects lasting 12-18 months, though this will vary based on individual projects selected.

We work with organizations to help them think through project ideas. There’s no need to have a specific goal or project identified before reaching out.

While we will be there each step of the way, organizations select, own, implement, and manage each project. Organizations are experts in their communities and with their work, and as such their decision-making, leadership, & execution are absolutely essential to project success. While we may manage individual components of a project (e.g., design a training), the organization is always in charge of the big picture.

Organizations are in the best position to manage projects, including:

• Making final decisions about which project components to include

• Ensuring the project timeline moves forward reasonably

• Holding team members accountable for completing tasks

While each project would be different, a hypothetical example/sample project may be helpful in understanding our working ideas on a more practical level:

An after-school program (let's call them Project Hope) reaches out to us with interest in adding a social/emotional support component to their program. After a few introductory conversations and a site visit, Tier 3 and Project Hope collaboratively design a survey/rating scale to learn more about the social/emotional needs of the children in the program. After reviewing the results together, we discover that older primary school students (grades 4-5) are struggling specifically with peer communication skills.

In response, we collaboratively design a social skills program focused on those skills and that age group. Tier 3 visits Project Hope again to help prepare for the implementation by providing staff training on leading the social skills groups. Project Hope then implements the program, consisting of 8 weeks of once-per-week social skills sessions, with related behavioral support strategies used by staff in between each session. Throughout the program, the staff use a brief rating scale to collect data on behavioral progress.

At the end of the 8-week implementation period, Tier 3 visits Project Hope again for follow-up conversations about the project. A project summary is created collaboratively, and results from the project are used in the creation of Project Hope's annual report. Additionally, areas of success and additional growth opportunities are identified, and used to create a plan for the expansion of the social skills program to other age groups and skill sets (e.g., problem-solving, positive interactions with adults).