The Capacity Building Center for Courts developed an intervention taxonomy to help you identify a strategy that works for you. Start with (1) and move through each category, looking for solutions, strategies, or interventions you can use or adapt to address your need. Here are the four types of interventions:

(1) Evidence-based practices: Evidence-based practices (EBPs) rely on empirical evidence, analysis, and research to demonstrate their effectiveness. EBPs have been tested and validated using a scientific method. Look for published articles or research to discover EBPs related to your issue.

(2) Best practices: Best practices are professional procedures that are accepted or prescribed as correct or considered the most effective because they tend to produce superior results as compared to other practices. They aren’t necessarily backed by formal research, but there is some field evidence that they work.

(3) Positive Deviance: Positive deviance occurs when a community or group of people engage in uncommon behaviors or strategies that allow them to come up with better solutions to their problems than their peers, despite being similarly situated. Look within and outside of your field to see what new and innovative ideas are out there.

(4) Build-Your-Own Solution: When all else fails, you may have to design your own intervention. But it’s best to base your design on something already in use and adapt or change it rather than building from the ground up.