Technical Support Overview
HEAC's Technical Support aims to:
- Help local collaboratives plan and implement strategies that improve environmental conditions in each of the two sectors in Phase II of the HEAC program.
- Support the statewide movement for improving nutrition and physical activity environments in California by linking HEAC community collaboratives with statewide policy advocates and efforts.
- Link the HEAC program with other state and national obesity prevention initiatives, and link grantees from those initiatives with HEAC grantees.
HEAC enlisted a core group of technical support providers, with expertise in the two HEAC sectors, to work with grantees over the six years of the program. As the program office, Partnership for the Public's Health coordinates the work of these providers, to assure that clear and consistent support is provided to all grantees.
Site Coordinators from each local collaborative serve on a steering committee, to advise the technical support team and help guide the provision of support. Technical support strategies fall into four main categories: program-wide support, site specific support, peer learning, and individual support.
Program-wide Technical Support
The PPH Program Office coordinates the following:
- Site Coordinator meetings, TA meetings, Grantee meetings and annual conferences to foster networking, peer learning, and sharing of strategies
- Training for Site Coordinators
- Website, where up to date resources and tools are available
- Teleconferences
Four organizations make up the core of the technical support team:
- California Project LEAN (Leaders Encouraging Activity and Nutrition) -School/After School Sector
- California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness Program (CANFit) - Neighborhood/After School Sector
- PolicyLink - Neighborhood/After School Sector
- Berkeley Media Studies Group - Both Sectors
In addition, the following organizations provide training and expertise in specialized areas:
- California Center for Civic Participation - youth engagement and youth leadership
- Children Now - reducing marketing and advertising aimed at children
- Common Sense Media - parent education and media literacy
- Planning for Healthy Places at Public Health Law & Policy - influencing city and county land use plans
- Prevention Institute/Strategic Alliance - state advocacy on nutrition and physical activity
Site Specific Support
The core technical support team provides the following to each site:
- Planning and assessment support
- Individualized training and consultation
- Tailored tools and materials for each sector
Peer Learning
To take advantage of the knowledge and experience HEAC collaboratives have and continue to develop throughout the course of the program, the technical support structure includes numerous opportunities for peer learning. These include:
- Bi-annual grantee meetings.
- Periodic meetings of peer groups to share strategies and challenges.
- Site Coordinator in-person meetings (three times/year), and monthly Site Coordinator conference calls.
- Biannual Grantee meetings.
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- Materials and resource exchanges.
- Other methods continue to emerge, as determined by grantees.
The PPH Program Office coordinates and facilitates these opportunities.
Individualized Technical Support
Every collaborative has unique needs that emerge during the course of planning or carrying out interventions in a community. Although there is a wealth of experience and expertise among the core technical support team and the additional providers, not every need or capacity-building process can be anticipated. For this reason, each grantee was asked to set aside $5,000 annually in their individual budgets to contract for technical support in areas not covered by the other HEAC TA providers. These funds may be pooled across the three grantees within a collaborative to support a more intensive training, or may be used by each grantee individually. If needed each HEAC collaborative can request an additionally $10,000 for responsive technical support.
