Media:
Report
Presentation
Team:
Amy Grinsfelder
Julia Keefe
Kelli McGrattan
Lauren Santorso
Organization:
International Rescue Committee
About:
An initiative of the International Rescue Committee, with support from the Office of Refugee Resettlement
and the Nationalities Service Center, Project SOAR provides technical assistance to Ethnic Community Based Organizations (ECBOs). This paper aims to evaluate the impact of this technical assistance provided to ECBOs with hopes of identifying strengths and possible weaknesses in their deliverables. As Project SOAR ended in 2012, this report is a reflective evaluation of the services provided to ECBOs from 2009 onward, and provides a possible foundation for enhanced technical assistance services provided by Project SOAR in the future, or by any mainstream technical assistance service providers.
Through primary and secondary research, this team evaluated Project SOAR’s technical assistance to determine whether Project SOAR has contributed to the capacity development of ECBOs. This paper aims to answer: 1) If technical assistance was a contributing factor to the ECBO and if so, in what way; 2) Which methods of technical assistance, if any, are useful; and 3) Do ECBOs learn and implement the tools provided in technical assistance or is their participation in technical assistance simply perfunctory?
