Table of Contents >
Chapter 19. Choosing and Adapting Community Interventions >
Section 6. Promoting the Adoption and Use of Best Practices >
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| Contributed by Phil Rabinowitz Edited by Bill Berkowitz and Jerry Schultz |
Checklist
Here you will find a checklist summarizing the important points of the section.
What is a best practice?
A best practice is:
__ Measurable
__ Notably successful
__ Replicable
__ A good fit for your circumstances
Why promote the adoption and use of best practices?
__ Using a recognized best practice makes it easier to justify the work.
__ Using recognized best practices can bolster the credibility of an organization.
__ Using best practices can make it easier to get funding.
__ Using a best practice removes a lot of the guesswork from planning.
__ The originators of the practice are known, and might be available to consult on how to best implement it.
__ We know that best practices work.
When should you promote the adoption and use of best practices?
__ When a new intervention or program is starting up.
__ When what’s being done isn’t working.
__ When there’s a serious community problem that has to be tackled.
__ When the community demands it.
__ When funders or officials demand it.
Who should be involved in promoting the adoption and use of best practices?
__ Practitioners – health and human service workers, community developers, etc.
__Members of the population that will participate in or benefit from the best practices in question.
__ Those who’ll be indirectly affected by the program.
__ Interested community members.
__ Local and, if appropriate, state officials.
Where do you find best practices?
__ On the Internet.
__ By networking.
__ In libraries.
__ Through national advocacy and professional organizations and their journals.
__ Through international, state, and federal agencies.
__ Through foundations and other funders.
__ In academia.
__ Through community word of mouth.
How do you promote the adoption and use of best practices?
__ Define your issue, needs, and goals clearly, so that you can determine exactly what kind of best practice you’re seeking.
__ Search for appropriate best practices.
You promote the use and implementation of best practices by:
__ Mobilizing community opinion.
__ Alerting funders to best practice possibilities.
__ Bringing some of the people who originated or who use appropriate practices together with people in your community.
__ Suggesting that, rather than substituting a best practice for what it is already doing, an organization or group simply add it, or try it out.
__ Ensuring that anyone involved in trying to replicate a best practice is provided with the training to make it successful.
__ Providing those who’ll implement best practices with the necessary support and resources.
__ Continuing to make the best better, and maintaining the community’s commitment to best practices.