On August 20th, 2020, OneOp hosted, “Using Evidence-Based Programs to Best Support Military Families: An Intro to the Continuum of Evidence.” In this webinar, we were joined by Dr. Daniel Perkins, Dr. Melissa Zack, and Jennifer Smith from the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State University. Their goal was to share Clearinghouse’s Continuum of Evidence, a repository of programs designed to be used by professionals across the board to enhance military family readiness and resilience.
Webinar Highlights
Looking back at this very informative webinar, we wanted to share some of the highlights from this session particularly beneficial for service providers working with children and families.
- Danny Perkins, Founder of the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness, introduced the Clearinghouse and its history. He also described the services that they provide to improve readiness.
- The Continuum of Evidence was then introduced. The Continuum is an interactive, searchable database of evidence-based programs that address a wide variety of family and mental health issues and are applicable to military and civilian families.
- The Continuum is comprised of more than 1,350 programs, covering 44 different topics. Having been reviewed and placed on the Continuum in 8 different categories of evidence, the resources and list of programs available are thoroughly vetted by the Clearinghouse research team
- Melissa Zack and Jennifer Smith both went over how the programs included in the Continuum are peer-reviewed and how they are placed within the system.
- Many of these searchable topic areas include nutrition/diet, parenting, relationships, child abuse, PTSD, trauma, and financial literacy.
- When you search the Continuum, results will be displayed by placement (highest placement first), and alphabetical order within the placement. If you see a program of interest, you can click it and find a Fact Sheet. These are available as PDFs on the program page. Information on the Fact Sheet includes placement, military use, topic area(s), time, cost, evaluation plan, target population, summary, evidence, components, previous use, training, and implementation. Our presenters also went over how to search the Continuum for programs and how to use their Technical Assistance team to find programs specifically tailored to the training you need. The Technical Assistance team provides free assistance for military service providers and provides assistance with searching the Continuum, selecting programs, implementation, and program selection.
Other Resources from the Clearinghouse
Another resource offered by the Clearinghouse is the THRIVE Initiative (https://thrive.psu.edu/). The THRIVE Initiative is a continuum of parenting programs for parents of children from birth to 18 years of age and is available at no cost to parents. Each of these programs focuses on three important areas: positive parenting practices, parent and child stress management, and physical health promotion.
We took a deeper look into the THRIVE Initiative with Clearinghouse representatives Terri Rudy and Ryan Chesnut in our Webinar Series on THRIVE. Terri and Ryan took us through all the features of THRIVE and explained how the programs and strategies offered can be incorporated in your work with parents and children. Each of those webinars in the series are available for archived viewing on the series homepage (https://oneop.org/thrive/).
Archived Viewing and CE Credit Info
If you happened to miss the live webinar, the archived recording of this training is available on the event page here. Free Continuing Education Credits for this event are still available for licensed social workers, professional counselors, case managers, certified family life educators, and family therapists. These CE credits will be available to obtain through August 20th, 2022!
Blog Post Image: From militaryfamilies.psu.edu, (used with permissions from Clearinghouse/D. Perkins)
