The Sociometrics Program Archives: Promoting the Dissemination of Evidence-Based Practices Through Replication Kits

Abstract

It is important that psychosocial interventions that have been shown to be effective in changing risky behavior be disseminated, so that they can be replicated and their effectiveness evaluated in a new setting. This article describes an innovative method for promoting the dissemination of evidence-based practice through replication kits. Three problem-focused collections of promising prevention programs, the Program Archive on Sexuality, Health and Adolescence, the HIV/AIDS Prevention Program Archive, and the Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Program Archive, are used to illustrate this technique for improving information exchange between social work research and practice. The productive research-to-practice feedback loop described in this article can be generalized to any other content area for which standard intervention protocols or curricula have been or could be developed.