A case study that utilizes the Positive Deviance approach to address issues facing previously abducted girl soldiers from the Lords Resistance Army in their reintegration into the camps in Pader, Uganda.

Researchers tried to find out which conditions and circumstances in life stories of young people from marginalized Roma communities (MRC) are supportive and lead to success in formal education.

This is a story of a young man, who had been studding social work – master´s degree when I first met him. Currently he is director of a community centre in the Roma settlement, where he grew up. So, he has decided to stay and help Roma people from his community to overcome obstacles connected with formal education and other social problems.  

In this project, the stories of domestic violence and abuse in Moldova and Serbia from Geronto housewives and the elderly, respectively are highlighted by researchers in Belgrade.

Watch the Romanian Red Cross share their success using positive deviance to find solutions to everyday problems in local schools.

Software company SXT uses the PD approach to better engage with patients and healthcare workers in order to provide services that help reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections.

Together with the National Romanian Red Cross and the local Brasov branch office, PD facilitators formed and trained a PD innovation team to help initiate and sustain the approach in two projects aimed at reducing school drop-outs in the Roma community.

A case study on using PD in the business sector for improving the success of an automotive dealership

USAID/Positive Pathways/Democracy International, Jamaica partnered with the Village Initiatives Foundation (Jamaica) to implement Positive Deviance (PD) in a Jamaican community long stigmatized for such issues over nine months. This marks the first application of PD to youth violence prevention in the Caribbean region. Led by Dr. Khadijah Williams, Research Consultant and trained by Professor Arvind Singhal of the University of Texas, El Paso, the research team (comprising community researchers), embarked on a groundbreaking journey to “flip the script.”

The Stanford d.school’s K12 Lab is focused on obliterating opportunity gaps in K-12 education by helping schools apply a design thinking approach to messy, complex, systemic problems that impact their students. When former d.school fellow Marc Chun was introduced to positive deviance and discovered a process intuitive and ripe for application across under-resourced K-12 schools struggling with systemic problems. The Positive Deviance for Educators project was born.

VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System uses PD to expand the MRSA Prevention Program to achieve a 80% reduction in MRSA infection rates at 150+ Acute Care Medical Centers and Nursing Homes.

The School District of Menomonee Falls used the Positive Deviance framework to determine positive deviant 3rd – 5th grade teachers in the area of literacy instruction, leading to positive results in student learning.

A PD strategy was applied in two mental health service settings to the problem of social isolation of people with mental illness. It provided a catalyst for people struggling with mental illness to self-organize, support each other, and learn from socially active peers about how to connect in a meaningful way with their communities.

A focus on the agro-ecological community and stakeholders involved in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María

Representatives from the Western District of Texas’ probation office and federal court, with help of representatives from The University of Texas at El Paso decided to ask a PD question: Are there any individuals who have recently completed their terms of supervised release or are on their way to completion (within 12 months) despite the demographic, situational, and dispositional odds against them?