Summing up a month's worth of Evidence Based Practice Meetings
5/2/14
Our group originally came together in March to talk about applying for SIF dollars but quickly determined that focusing on examining Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) is key to:
a) understanding what EBP is and all it entails,
b) understanding where to start in evaluating effectiveness of our programs and services,
c) helping our community start collecting outcomes that measures the impact of programs/services provided,
d) being ready to apply for future SIF dollars and other funding that requires measurable outcome reporting.
Over the last month, we’ve met with experts on evaluation to help us understand what EBP is and how it can be implemented. We’ve acknowledged that if we don’t start now, we’ll remain unprepared to seek funding that could bolster the services offered in our community. We agreed that because Nevada receives the least federal dollars we are in a prime position to be a testing ground for innovative programming. We’re eager to move forward with like-minded people who want to adopt EBP as the DNA of doing business in our community—for the sake of improving services, determining what works, and tangibly improving our community as a result.
With that background, today’s meeting got down in the dirt and started making concrete plans. We prioritized our three items from last week to this:
- Create a community institute on evaluation—learning community.
- Sell value of evidence-based practices to nonprofits; pull, not push.
- Learn who is already doing EBP.
- Work collaboratively as a community and system of care to share ideas, monies, clients, services, programing and information
- Educate ourselves, our donors and our local service providers on evidence-based practices
- Obtain and sustain government and private funding