Category
Sponsored Projects/Research
Submitted By
Erin Poole, erin.poole@cuanschutz.edu, Research Scientist and Associate Director, Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health
Project Team
Erin Poole, erin.poole@cuanschutz.edu, Research Scientist and Associate Director, Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health
Claudia Kramer, claudia.kramer@cuanschutz.edu, PRA
Project Description
The Colorado Resource Center for Tribal Epidemiology Centers (RC-TEC) is a Federallysponsored grant awarded to the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native health (CAIANH). RC-TEC provides technical assistance to tribal epidemiology centers (TECs) across the country. Technical assistance (TA) is the provision of targeted, specialized services or support to an organization. RC-TEC identifies and screens potential TA providers and then connects TECs to providers with the expertise requested. The research team at CAIANH developed a TA registry using Smartsheet to build a large breadth of potential TA providers with a wide variety of experience and expertise to support TECs. We invite potential providers to share information about their education and expertise via an online form that feeds into the Smartsheet registry. We can search the registry to find suitable TA providers when the TECs have a need.
Project Efficiency
The greatest efficiency is that we can proactively recruit potential TA providers who have varied expertise and experience working with tribal communities who are then prepared to start work with the TEC as soon as a need is identified. This cuts down the time from when the TA need is identified to when the TA support can start, sometimes by 2-3 months. It also allows us to build relationships with the potential TA providers that are separate from the work. The TA registry can then be expanded to support TA requests for other projects and future grant proposals.
Project Inspiration
We were inspired to build the TA registry because it was taking us a long time, sometimes months, to respond to TEC TA requests because we had to find TA providers, bring them up to speed on the RC-TEC project, vet them, and set them up for payment before we could connect them with the TECs. This caused the TECs to find other options for their TA needs and rendered our project less useful to them. We weren’t able to meet the aims of the project because we could not provide TA support in a timely and efficient way.
What Makes You Happiest about this Project?
This project makes us happy because we can serve the TECs more quickly and efficiently, which frees them up to focus on their work and builds their trust. When the TECs trust that we can efficiently provide excellent TA resources, they are able to think more broadly and expansively about their needs and community needs. When the TECs are successful, tribal communities have better outcomes, which is at the heart of CAIANH’s mission. The project has already been successful in recruiting over 30 TA providers and has plans to expand the registry to benefit all the projects at CAIANH.
