PSVP’s involvement with Positive Deviance (PD) is different than its usual approach to selecting and engaging with nonprofit investees. PD is an initiative launched independently by several PSVP partners who put their own time and money into the project. PSVP as an organization provided a small matching grant to help kick start the effort and today serves as the fiscal agent for the initiative.
Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups whose uncommon behaviors and strategies enable them to find better solutions to problems than their peers, while having access to the same resources and facing similar or worse challenges.
Jerry Sternin, Southeast Asia Director for Save the Children Federation, and his wife Monique, studied this phenomenon in a small Vietnam village where most of the children were malnourished. There, 80% of the parents fed rice to their children twice a day and withheld food when a child had diarrhea, until the problem cleared. The remaining 20% of parents took a different, successful, approach: they fed their children readily available foods in addition to rice, and they doubled the amount of food when a child had diarrhea. Their children were well- nourished. Jerry and Monique functioned not as experts with solutions, but in examples like this, enabled people to discover the effective strategies and behaviors that already existed in their communities. Important change was realized from the bottom up.
Positive Deviance was first applied in the Pittsburgh area at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS). The hospital was experiencing increased MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections, generally acquired while a patient was in the hospital. MSRA is a virulent bacterium.
In 2005, the CDC contacted Dr. Jon Lloyd, a retired surgeon and former Chief of Surgery at UPMC, to work with the VA hospital to reduce infection rates.
Dr. Lloyd had read about the Sternins’ work, and was interested in trying to apply PD to the situation. The chief of staff at VAPHS was amenable to the idea and PSVP partner Dave D’Appolonia arranged a workshop for partners that included the “pot stirring” Sternins.
As a result of the workshop, 30% of all VA staff volunteered to be a part of the PD program at the hospital. This resulted in hundreds of front-line staff volunteering thousands of small solutions to the MRSA problem. Even visiting clergy were part of the solution when it was learned that Bibles spread germs from patient to patient. As a result of a new hygiene practice and the introduction of numerous other changes, the MRSA infection rate at the VAPHS was cut in half in all fourteen units by the end of the first year.
PSVP’s involvement with Positive Deviance didn’t stop there. Carrie Barman, a partner with PSVP, helped to found Solutions for Society in memory of her father’s passion for helping others. This annual event aims to educate and inspire people about the power of individual innovation in creating social change.
Richard Garland, founder of One Vision One Life (OVOL), also saw the merit of PD in his organization’s effort to reduce gang violence. In Clairton, Pennsylvania, OVOL brought together the district attorney, chief of police, shop owners, parents and kids to consider existing and needed solutions within the community. Examples of follow-up action included peer-mediation groups, after-school improvisational acting groups, and neighborhood clean-up groups, and local foundations provided funding to support facilitator training for several in the Clairton community and OVOL. The connections with local foundations was made by Tom Canfield, who has volunteered countless hours in support of the teen violence prevention initiative.
Dr. Lloyd also saw the value of engaging the school district which desired to increase student time on task, a problem affected by many variables. PSVP successfully gained funding to support the use of the PD process at the middle school, demonstrating again the versatility and applicability of this problem solving approach.
Dr. Lloyd marvels that PSVP is willing to broaden its repertoire. “Partners step outside their comfort zones and use innovative solutions when new problems are presented. They don’t just find the problems, recommend solutions, and throw money at them. Partners donate their time and talent and immerse themselves in the organizations to find the best way to create lasting value.” Dr. Lloyd adds, “PSVP has a ‘repertoire of solution strategies for communities,’ a repertoire that is constantly growing and that continues to improve our community every day.”
Download “Positive Deviance: A PSVP Story of Creative Change” (PDF)