The image shows an older woman and an older man standing together in front of a backdrop of tall, modern skyscrapers. The woman, who has white hair and glasses, is pointing at a document the man is holding. The man, who is bald with a gray beard, is looking at the document while holding it open. Behind them, there is a large orange circle, creating a graphic contrast with the buildings, and a small blue-green circle above the orange shape, adding a decorative element to the composition. The image conveys a sense of collaboration or discussion.

Image by Nye' Lyn Tho.

As evidence-based approaches continue to be the standard for policy, practice, and funding in the public health field, it is increasingly important to define what constitutes credible and valuable evidence beyond peer-reviewed, scientific literature. Prevention Institute worked with community-grounded researchers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention on the Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence (UCEE) project to illustrate the value and importance of contextual (i.e., measurable factors in the community that may impact the success of a prevention strategy) and experiential (i.e., the collective experience and expertise of those who have practiced or lived in a particular setting, or lived experience) evidence. This project builds off of Health Equity in Practice modules developed by Prevention Institute to support local government partners in embedding health equity and racial justice in community safety work.

The initial phase of the UCEE project included conducting a landscape scan and conversations with subject matter experts to understand how grant-making bodies – including federal agencies, universities, philanthropies, and state and local health departments – have worked with community groups and residents to create, uplift, and integrate contextual and experiential evidence as valuable and effective types of evidence in decision making. PI presented three webinars to inform and share findings from the project with key public health stakeholders, as well as engage with community and experts on their experiences with applying this approach in their own work. The webinars served as valuable learning opportunities for both public health practitioners and grant-makers to broaden their perspectives regarding evidence in decision-making. 
The scan, conversations, and webinars identified approaches and examples featured in the Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence: Promising Practices and Recommendations report, and presented key components and strategies for gathering, integrating, and sustaining contextual and experiential evidence.

Webinars:

Building off of the CDC's Framework for Thinking about Evidence, UCEE seeks to elevate and integrate contextual (i.e., measurable factors in a community) and experiential (i.e., the collective experience and expertise of community residents and practitioners, or lived experience) evidence alongside best available research evidence (i.e., peer-reviews, published scientific literature) for evidence-informed decision-making. Participants had an opportunity to engage with and provide feedback on a set of proposed principles and strategies to integrate these forms of evidence into decision-making for funding, strategies, policies, programs, and long-term planning.

In this webinar, public health practitioners discussed how they use Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence to guide decisions on funding, strategies, policies, programs, and long-term planning. The session featured Dr. Kathryn Bocanegra and Fareeha Waheed, who shared their successes, challenges, and strategies for integrating all three forms of evidence as presented in the CDC’s Framework for Thinking about Evidence. The Prevention Institute also discussed our ongoing work on the Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence (UCEE) project.

In this Webinar, Prevention Institute shares the principles, strategies, and recommendations from the Uplifting Contextual and Experiential Evidence: Promising Practices and Recommendations report.

Learn more here:

This project is supported by Cooperative Agreement No. NU38OT000305  from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services or the CDC.

Safety

Resources

Download All