What’s with the Pyramid?

Pyramids are fascinating for a number of reasons, not the least of which is their integrity and stability.  The most important part of a pyramid is the base.  It is the foundation upon which everything rests.  It is wide and stable.  There is a substantial amount of weight resting on this foundation.  It is important for the foundation to be right, otherwise the rest of our work is in jeopardy.

The 5 Ps: 

This side of the pyramid represents the “why” of a quality community corrections program.  It describes the conceptual process of starting with the big picture (i.e., vision, mission) and building on that foundation to progressively create the actual practices you desire.  Moving from Purpose to Practice is not easy, but as with most complex projects, when you break a big strategy into smaller steps, it suddenly appears realistic (and exciting!)

The Sources of the 5 Ps:

This side of the pyramid represents “where” to look to gather the needed information to develop a solid structure that will have integrity but also meet specific needs.  Beginning with the foundation, an (almost) universal understanding of the mission of community corrections, sets a wide base upon which to progressively get more specific.  Ultimately, every community corrections program must answer to their local community and count on their staff to actually execute.  In order words, the mission and principles are usually consistent across programs, but how those principles translate into practice is largely determined by your local community and agency staff.

The Implementation of the 5 Ps

This side of the pyramid represents the “how” of EBP implementation.  Starting with an articulation of our “7 Commandments of Community Corrections” as the foundation, explaining our perspective of EBP Simplified, Applied EBP, some integration pit falls to avoid and ending with “The 6 Ts of Treatment Fidelity”, the ultimate goal of community corrections.  Actually practicing what we preach.