In Fall 2024, the Evaluation Team conducted interviews with all four Community Research Specialists (CRS) as part of the pilot-year evaluation of the SWTCIE Illinois project. Guided by the Implementation construct in the project Evaluation Framework, the interviews aimed to gather insights into CRS perspectives while supporting project participants.
Data were collected through one-time, semi-structured interviews (Adams, 2015; Adeoye-Olatunde & Olenik, 2020; Patton, 2015) conducted via Zoom with all CRSs. To ensure trustworthiness, the Evaluation Team employed rigorous qualitative research procedures, including maintaining an audit trail, achieving evaluator triangulation (through review and analysis by three team members), and conducting member checks. All four CRSs were interviewed using an interview guide developed based on established semi-structured interview methods (Adams, 2015; Adeoye-Olatunde & Olenik, 2020; Brantlinger et al., 2005; Patton, 2015).
Thematic analysis revealed the following two overarching themes in the data: Role as a Convener and Technical Assistance. These themes are defined and illustrated with examples in the table below.
Table 1: SWTCIE Illinois Employment Specialist Perspective Themes
Theme | Definition | Example |
Role as a Convener | CRSs described leading biweekly meetings and trainings, connecting stakeholders, and engaging with local employers. These activities underscore the critical role of the CRS in establishing, legitimizing, and guiding collaborative efforts essential to the SWTCIE Illinois project. | “well, [my role] ... as a liaison, and by definition then I’m kind of a go-between, or a helper between two entities, which would be my agencies and [the evaluation team], DRS, anybody else, any of the other stakeholders. So I can do whatever I can to troubleshoot, offer support, relay information, just being that middle person in general.” |
Technical Assistance | The four CRSs leveraged their extensive experience and expertise to provide technical assistance to SWTCIE Illinois partners, particularly agencies and employment specialists (ESs). This support included direct guidance, facilitating networking opportunities, and building and utilizing connections with related entities, such as the Illinois Center on Transition and Work (ICTW). | “[my technical assistance support] can look (like) anywhere from helping … the DRS cases move along, so reaching out to DRS counselors to get certain documentation back. It can be meeting, going to agencies and actually working with the clients and helping them, helping the employment specialists gather data and understand sort of the employable skills and how to … interview someone in a way that allows them to open up and give you information.” |
Role as a Convener
The interviews, guided by the Implementation construct in the project Evaluation Framework, assessed CRS perspectives on their role within the SWTCIE Illinois project, revealing their critical function as conveners. Wood and Gray (1991) define conveners as individuals who establish, legitimize, and guide collaborative alliances, a role central to success given the highly collaborative design of the project. The project relies on effective coordination among diverse stakeholders, including SWTCIE Illinois participants and their families, the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS), six 14(c) partnering agencies, schools, competitive integrated employment (CIE) employers, and the University of Illinois. Maintaining harmonious collaboration among these groups can be challenging, requiring CRSs to possess not only organizational and social skills but also a nuanced perspective of stakeholder dynamics and project goals.
CRS effectiveness as conveners hinges on their ability to understand and navigate the needs, power dynamics, and communication gaps among stakeholders. Through scheduling and leading biweekly meetings, serving as communication liaisons, following up on events, and offering regular check-ins, CRSs foster connectivity and trust. Interview data reveals that this role demands a deep perspective of the project collaborative ecosystem. All four CRSs expressed a keen awareness of their responsibility to unite stakeholders and address disparities in agency empowerment, demonstrating how their insightful perspectives enable effective convening. The following quotes illustrate this:
- One CRS emphasized the necessity of collective effort, stating: “Teamwork makes the dream work. You got to work together for anything to happen in the social services world, and you have to come together as a united front.” This quote reflects a perspective that success depends on fostering a united collaborative spirit, guiding their efforts to align stakeholders toward common goals.
- Another CRS highlighted sensitivity to agency dynamics, noting “… it is important for me to recognize that I found over my career that agencies sometimes feel as if they’re not empowered, they feel like they’re not heard … they sometimes feel like they are the lesser of the partnership. And I think that’s just something that we have to always, I guess, fight against.” This perspective of agency self-perceived marginalization informs the CRS convener role, as they actively work to legitimize and amplify agency voices.
- A third CRS underscored the importance of responsive listening, saying, “So I mean, a lot of it is listening to my agencies. So, we check in biweekly, and I’m speaking with them throughout the week via email, trying to follow up on the things that we talked about during the check-in to solve some of those issues.” This quote reflects a perspective of the CRS role as requiring ongoing attentiveness to agency needs, enabling them to facilitate collaboration by addressing specific concerns promptly.
These perspectives, as captured in the interviews, reveal that CRS effectiveness as conveners stems from both their actions and ability to understand and respond to the project’s complex interpersonal and organizational dynamics.
Technical Assistance
Technical assistance involves delivering targeted support to address specific organizational or programmatic needs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). Unlike their convener role, which focuses on uniting stakeholders, the CRS technical assistance role centers on equipping partners, particularly agencies and ESs, with the skills and strategies needed to meet project objectives. CRS effectiveness hinges on understanding and addressing the unique challenges and skill gaps of SWTCIE Illinois partners, often identifying needs that stakeholders themselves may not fully articulate.
CRSs provide individualized support including coaching ESs on effective employer site tour practices, guiding agencies through procedural requirements, or recruiting participants. These efforts reflect practical expertise, and the interview data reveals that CRS perspectives on partner capabilities and project demands drives their impact. By discerning varying skill levels and training needs, CRSs tailor their guidance to strengthen partner performance. The following quotes illustrate how these perspectives shape CRS technical assistance:
- One CRS emphasized the need for structured training application, stating, “With my agencies, I just really encourage them to rely on and think about their ACRE training to do meaningful and purposeful job exploration with their individual as far as discovery, and then making sure that they’re getting that individual out in the community in different settings so that they can do observations and take note of different things.” This quote reflects a perspective of agencies’ need for practical guidance to translate training into effective practice.
- Another CRS highlighted support for capacity-building events, noting, “And then last but not least, [part of my role includes] just helping with some of the planning of the different events that we have in the employment specialists’ roundtables (or) any of the communities of practice.” This CRS statement demonstrates a perspective of the value of structured learning opportunities in enhancing ES skills, informing their alliance in event planning.
- A third CRS addressed diverse partner capabilities, saying, “(some of our partners) are at different levels of skills and abilities and understanding, and we have to work with them to be stronger in the areas that they’re weak.” This quote reflects a perspective of varied partner needs, enabling the CRS to customize support to address specific weaknesses.
These perspectives, captured in the interviews, highlight that CRS effectiveness in technical assistance stems from their ability to discern and respond to partner specific needs.
Conclusion
The interviews reveal that the CRS perspectives on stakeholder relationships, challenges, and project objectives is central to their dual roles as conveners and providers of technical assistance. These perspectives enable CRSs to bridge gaps, foster trust, and deliver targeted support intended to sustain collaboration and strengthening partner capacity. These complementary roles make the CRSs indispensable to the success of the SWTCIE Illinois project.