Keep the Focus on Evidence-Based Practice

June 6,2014 - Thanks to Anne Cory for facilitating this week’s meeting. SEI, along with leaders in our community, have started meeting to discuss a possible strategic plan. They met on Thursday, June 5, and discussed a mission, vision, and plan for the community. Most of the individuals in this SEI group are also in our EBP group, along with a few others targeting some similar tasks. The SEI group meets on the first Thursday of each month and all interested parties are invited to attend. Contact … The attendees questioned whether SEI’s group is replicating the efforts our EBP group. It was determined that SEI and others are not addressing EBP and are currently focusing on larger community needs. Our EBP group notes the importance of consistency of attendees so that we can move forward quickly on the best aspect of our work to date, which is capacity building through EBP. If you are a regular or sometimes attender to our EBP meetings, please make it a priority to attend each meeting so we can stay on track and continue moving forward. The group decided the desire to do “visioning” exercises, was duplicative of other efforts in the community and lacked the laser focus on EBP that we desire.  It would be very helpful to create clear plans and begin moving forward at this point toward operationalizing our EBP focus. We circled back to discussing the original intent for this group which centered around capacity building through implementing evidence-based practices, being an education opportunity for organizations on EBP, crossing all sectors. The three focus areas for this group are: Capacity Building, Quality Improvement, and Measurement. As a Capacity Building Institute, organizations that are currently using EBP could assist other organizations as they learn—paired by organization size. Smaller organizations would help mentor other small organizations, and so on. We want to ensure that we are implementing robust evaluation and impact measurement within agencies as well as across collaborative projects in the community. The group emphasized that we want to make sure we create a project that is manageable, given all the demands on agencies and staff members. Next steps: Mike Pomi discussed his recent introduction to Brenda Freeman and her possible involvement with the group. Brenda works at UNR doing research and evaluation. The group would like to reach out to Brenda, Jennifer, and others previously noted at UNR to assist. Mike also mentioned his recent discussions with Sarah and Kelly from SEI and their willingness to assist as needed. Mike volunteered to contact Sarah and Kelly and discuss their attendance at our next meeting to talk about EBP and what SEI already has created and is willing to share to as we pursue EBP. Mike will also contact Brenda Freeman at UNR. Peter will contact Dr. Bob and Jennifer McClendon. Tony will contact Nancy Brown and Nancy Hamilton. Anne will contact Deb Loesch Griffin. All conversations will center around our request for their attendance at our next meeting on 6/20 to discuss our next steps, since we now know we want to be a Capacity Building Institute on EBP. Discussion/listening meeting about roles that can be played by various resources (i.e. SEI, UNR, Turning Point, Dr. Bob Quilitch) in developing the capacity building institute. This is a discussion and listening meeting—no sales pitches or proposals—that will be a brainstorming discussion that should lead to definite direction on where we go with the institute and how the groups will help us get there. The next meeting is June 20 at 8 a.m. at United Way. See you there!