CP TIG Week: Helen Singer, Sally Thigpen, and Natalie Wilkins on Understanding Evidence: CDC’s Interactive Tool to Support Evidence-Based Decision Making

Greetings! We are Helen Singer, Sally Thigpen, and Natalie Wilkins from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We are excited to share with you a new tool developed in CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention called Understanding Evidence.

Understanding Evidenceis an interactive web resource that supports public health practitioners in making evidence-informed decisions around prevention. The goal of evidence-based decision making is to bring a high standard of research evidence into the decision-making process while taking into account the contextual and experiential factors that influence decisions. This free, online resource aligns well with the evaluation perspective of the Community Psychology TIG, and it offers practitioners and others working to prevent violence important knowledge and resources for using evidence in their decision-making processes including how to:

Singer

  1. Define the multiple forms of evidence involved in evidence-based decision making
  2. Identify standards of rigor for best available research evidence
  3. Identify sources of and ways to collect best available research evidence, contextual evidence, and experiential evidence
  4. Identify key stages and characteristics of evidence-based decision making 

Lesson Learned: Understanding Evidence is designed primarily for violence prevention practitioners, but anyone working to prevent violence in their communities will find the information useful including CDC grantees, researchers, program evaluators, technical assistance providers, and decision-makers.

Rad Resources:

  • Understanding Evidence website This free, online resource offers practitioners and others working to prevent violence important knowledge and resources for using evidence in their decision-making processes
  • The Evidence Project Overview The Evidence Project (a project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Violence Prevention) proposes a comprehensive framework for understanding evidence and evidence-based decision making that includes three types of evidence (best available research evidence, contextual evidence, and experiential evidence)

Questions? Comments? Please add them in the comments section here or contact Helen Singer: hhsinger@cdc.gov

The American Evaluation Association is celebrating CP TIG Week with our colleagues in the Community Psychology Topical Interest Group. The contributions all week come from CP TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org.

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