Agency-university partnership for evidence-based practice in social work

Little is known about evidence-based practice (EBP) in social service agencies beyond studies of researcher, practitioner, and educator opinions. The Bringing Evidence for Social Work Training (BEST) Project involved 16 participants from 3 social service agencies. The experiential training, delivered by 2 doctoral students, focused on a team-identified practice issue and followed the EBP process of motivation, question formulation, search, evaluation, and application planning. Posttraining focus group data were analyzed. Results suggest that university researchers who based in schools of social work can successfully collaborate with agencies to support the process of identifying, evaluating, and discussing the application of research evidence in practice. University–agency training partnerships should be considered as 1 of many potential strategies for advancing EBP in social work.