Special Projects Team Grows State Agency Capacity in Indiana

About the Project

The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) found they were struggling with the capacity to comprehensively address the needs and desires of its energy program staff in Indiana. IHCDA identified funding and created a new team at the state Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) office with staff dedicated to tasks that had previously been addressed in more ad hoc ways. 

Challenge

IHCDA was struggling to complete valuable but not core functions for their state and local WAP agencies and Energy Assistance Program staff. These were tasks that could help to grow their programs’ impacts, such as accessing additional funding or reviewing program outcomes data to look for opportunities for improvement. Part of the challenge was not having enough staff capacity, but another was that some of those “not-core” functions were not explicitly part of any staff member’s job. 

Solution    

Using a mix of funding—including Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds, U.S. Department of Energy WAP, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and local utility dollars—IHCDA created the Energy & Utility Programs Special Projects Team to support both the WAP Team and the Energy Assistance Program Team in the state. In its first year, the Special Projects Team scaled up to a team of five: a data analyst, special projects analyst, customer service analyst, vendor analyst, and a manager. Now in its second year, IHCDA is in the process of hiring a Workforce Projects Analyst for the team.

Positive Impact      

With the addition of the Special Projects Team, IHCDA was able to dedicate more time and effort to areas that had been overlooked in the past, while creating more capacity for extra initiatives such as applying for new grants, completing data analyses, making better data-informed decisions, and looking at their marketing and application processes in a more in-depth manner. This allows the WAP team the capacity to focus on other elements of weatherization. Overall, the new team has allowed for expanded services, analysis of more data, and improved communication with Subgrantees. 

This story was developed using content provided by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.