About the Positive Deviance Initiative (PDI)
The Positive Deviance Initiative (PDI) is a network organization which is dedicated to amplifying the use of the Positive Deviance (PD) approach to enable communities worldwide to solve seemingly “intractable” problems which require behavioral and social change. By offering workshops, trainings, and convening’s, as well as technical support and online resources, the PDI collaborates with many different organizations in various sectors to improve the lives of vulnerable people around the world.
To achieve its mission, The Positive Deviance Initiative offers the following services:
- Workshops, seminars and training programs
- Technical support for new applications of the PD approach
- Convening’s of regional forums and meetings
- Support for research on the efficacy of the approach and evaluation of PD projects
- A web-based community of practice, including information from PD Projects and resources
To read more about the mission of the PDI, please click here.
The work of the PDI is grounded in the belief that community transformation can be realized by the discovery of innovations and wisdom that already exist within a community.
As a network organization with a mission to amplify and disseminate the use of the PD approach, the foundation of our work is to connect organizations and communities which are either already using, or would like to use, the PD approach. This website has been designed by the PDI as a space in which organizations and communities are able to access resources, ask advice, and share results with other communities that are on the journey of using the PD approach.
After first applying the PD approach in Vietnam (link), co-founders Jerry and Monique Sternin began using the approach to address other seemingly intractable problems, such as female genital mutilation (FGM) in Egypt, and maternal health in Myanmar. After returning from oversees in 2001, Jerry and Monique began working as adjunct professors at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, while at the same time exploring applications of the PD approach to the U.S. healthcare system and creating a PD network in Argentina.
While the Sternins were teaching a course on Positive Deviance at Tufts University, an organizational framework began to develop, and by 2008 the Positive Deviance Initiative began to develop a full-time staff. The PDI is currently located at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. The PDI has collaborated with a variety of institutions including ministries of health and hospitals, corporations, foundations, local and international NGOs, UNICEF, Peace Corps, USAID, and the World Bank, among others.
In Memoriam: Jerry Sternin
Jerry Sternin, co-founder of the Positive Deviance Initiative (PDI), and a pioneer of applied Positive Deviance, passed away on Thursday, December 11, 2008.
Jerry was an inspiration and a mentor to many people throughout the world, and used the Positive Deviance (PD) approach to improve the lives of thousands of people. Jerry will be remembered in many ways, by many people, perhaps most profoundly as an innovator and a teacher. Jerry possessed energy, optimism, and a belief in the power of the PD approach that the PDI will carry on in its work.
After Jerry’s death, many friends and colleagues wrote remembrances which profile Jerry and the amazing work that he accomplished. Links to those remembrances are below.