The last mile for public policy

Governments ultimately deliver outcomes through thousands of people making decisions at local government, nonprofits, and service provider organizations. Technical assistance is how those decisions improve over time. In theory, technical assistance is simple: make sure the people implementing policy know what to do, and how, with advice and guidance from state and federal agencies. It’s one of the most important aspects of how government agencies operate. But government employees I’ve spoken with acknowledge that the status quo of how TA is delivered is fundamentally broken. IT HAPPENS EVERY DAY Imagine a federal program with millions of dollars in grants to disburse to state and local agencies. Before a dollar moves, program staff must define which entities are eligible, build a rubric, identify the metrics that define success and community impact, and align stakeholders across thousands of organizations nationwide. Then they must make potential grantees aware of the grant. A significant share of that upstream work is time spent interviewing people and defining criteria. It’s careful, expensive work. And none of it matters if the dollars don’t reach the organizations that can imp…