Technical assistance to the grassroots, part ii: erin brockovich revisited--a lesson for social policy-making and agency.

Reading "Technical assistance: Providing grassroots groups access to scientific and technical information" by Barbara Berney (New Solutions, Vol. 15, No. 1), I was overtaken by a subliminal image of Erin Brockovich (looking like Julia Roberts), who was a self-taught technical assistance provider (TA). For progressives, radicals, for those who apply participatory methods in research, for those familiar with the work of Paolo Freire and the benefits of building critical consciousness, there are some interesting extensions that can be drawn from the success stories of TAs working with grassroots groups.