The Technical Assistance and Research Center (TARC)
In 2008, NCUIH founded the Technical Assistance and Research Center (TARC) to become the organization’s implementing agent to assist the Urban Indian Health Programs to attain their own goals in diverse areas; such as Management, Health Information Technology, Finance and Operations, Board Education, Evaluation, Outreach, Quality Care and Technology, among other topics.  As such, the TARC has been designed to operate under a holistic approach that is both in seamless coordination with NCUIH’s Executive Office, the Policy and Legislation Center (PLC), and the Communications Department.

Did you know that....?
47.6%  of UIHPs reporting receive a grant and/or contract from a County Agency. Most of these grants/contracts are in the area of:

-Health (90%)
-Education (20%)
-Emergency Services (20%)
Source:UIHP 2008 Survey. More.

The reported Major obstacles to implementing government programs once the grant was obtained, were:

1.       Too many tasks for too little
           money
2.       Lack of adequate grant funding
3.       Lack of personnel
More..

TARC Conducts and/or coordinate trainings focused on Member Programs’ efficiency and effectiveness to support access and quality of care for urban AI/AN.  Field areas planned to be addressed during the current Fiscal Year (2015-2016) are: health policy, marketing and improving operations’ efficiency. For Upcoming Webinars please contact Kimberly Fowler, Ph.D- Technical Assistance and Research Director- at kfowler(at)ncuih.org  For archived Webinars please find visit NCUIH’s Knowledge Resource Center’s past Webinars page by clicking here

Through the COLs NCUIH provides practical knowledge and information, coordinate peer-to-peer mentoring, seek experts in the field to provide trainings. 2014-2015 CoLs: Board of Directors Community of Learning Executive Directors Community of Learning For further information please visit our CoL sub Page (Click here) 2015-2016 CoLs: Board of Directors Community of Learning Affordable Care Act/Enrollment Accreditation Community of Learning Diabetes Community of Learning Behavioral Health Community of Learning For further information please visit our CoL sub Page Archived Materials on Past COLs

TARC provides one-on-one technical assistance to UIHPs to meet their unique and specific needs. In average, NCUIH provides over 250 hours of Technical Assistance annually on a wide gamut of UIHP related topics that foster improvements in service quality data and evaluation, outreach and enrollment, and licensure and accreditation application.    Depending on the field and resources, a technical assistance request may be followed by site-specific support and the development of a Community-of-Learning.  If you are a NCUIH Member and would like to explore the possibility to have one-on-one TA, please contact Dr. Kimberly Fowler, Technical Assistance and Research Director at kfowler (at) ncuih.org Example of NCUIH One-on-One support activity NCUIH worked with personnel of two member clinics to varying degrees on the start-up activities for the Children’s Mental Health System of Care (SOC) grants. Activities included locating and providing examples of Project Director job descriptions in SOC; providing training to new Director in SOC philosophy values and work; assisting with the identification of a work plan; and connection to other federal initiatives. Archived Trainings (Prior to current Year)

In order to address health disparities in minority and under served populations, the NORC project involves many partner organizations—each of whom represented a particular minority/under served group. NCUIH provided the project with insight into the barriers that impact Native health and service access. NCUIH conducted an environmental scan of past and ongoing program projects related to chronic disease management, interventions, research, and the use of health information technology. NCUIH’s input in teleconferences with national partners and the writing of literature reviews contributed to the development of a needs assessment presented to CMS and the Office of Minority Health, as well as focus group contacts to assist with AI/AN disparity needs determination.