Last week, I came up with a list of search terms commonly used in reports by the Siemer Institute and other social service organizations. This week, I began the preliminary work for my best practices research using those terms. I started this project by jumping straight into the literature; which was a mistake. It was immediately overwhelming, as I had no sense of direction. I was just reading through paper after paper without a clue as to what I was actually searching for. Thankfully, all it took was a quick meeting with my supervisor to reorient myself. Having conducted numerous studies in the past, she explained her method of gathering data for these reports. Through this discussion, I realized my mistake and was able to formulate a plan to guide myself through the process. My mistake was that I had not done any “pre-research research”. Before looking for best practices that help low-income families avoid homelessness, first I needed to investigate what constitutes “best practices”. Rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel, I should have used reliable organizations that already identified best practices within the industry and branched out from there.

Subsequently, I have looked through Siemer Institute partners’ websites and identified the practices they currently employ. I’ve organized this into a list to be compared with the best practices identified in the scientific literature by organizations such as Aspen and Urban Institute. My next steps are to research if there is data supporting the effectiveness and longevity of the practices employed by our partner programs. This approach makes my report more relevant to the readers: our partner organizations. When it comes to asking for help or guidance, it can be hard to take that initial step forward. Asking for help early on shifted my approach to this work and improved my productivity and peace of mind.