Identifying and Promoting Best Practices
Understanding
Best Practices | Key
Steps in Promoting and Fostering Best Practices
Identifying Best Practices
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6Validating
Existing Best Practices
Because there is such a wide range of definitions and criteria applied to best practices among the social service sector, it is important for you to carefully assess the validity of best practices that are identified through research. One way to do this is to ask several key questions:
- What process was used to select this practice?
- What criteria were used to measure the success of this practice?
- Was the practice compared against relative objective data with positive results, or did it appear to have been primarily compared against subjective data?
- Was the practice tested in multiple settings for replicability and adaptability?
- Was the practice nominated by one person or organization or by a number of organizations or individuals?
- Is there enough information included in the description of the practice to enable implementation or adaptation?
- Does the source of the best practice appear to be a valid resource for identifying best practices?
- Is the source transparent in terms of the process and criteria used to select best practices?
How to Identify
and Validate New Best Practices
Faith-based and community organizations are on the front lines where new best practice identification takes place. Therefore, it is often among FBCOs that new best practices will first surface. As a result, it is vital that FBCOs are made aware of the key areas in which best practices are being sought.
There are three key steps involved in the process of identifying and validating a new best practice including: 1) finding potential best practices; 2) describing and documenting best practices; and 3) validating best practices through a comparative assessment.
Understanding
Best Practices | Key
Steps in Promoting and Fostering Best Practices