Great Case Studies or Statistics to support ABCD?
Data, Evaluation, and Research
This is so important, I'm glad it's being discussed. I suggest also taking a look at Paul Farmer's work. Partners in Health is definitely a huge example of an asset-based approach to healthcare. My colleague Alaka Wali knows his work well and has suggested the following:
Farmer, Paul, Pathologies of Power, 2005, University of California Press. Especially, Chapter 5, pp 139-159.
Here, Farmer discusses how he uses "pragmatic solidarity"-- which he describes as solidarity combined with a concrete program of action. Farmer discusses the importance of "elicit[ing] the experiences and views of poor people and to incorporate these views into all observations, judgements, and actions". In this chapter he discusses the difference his approach makes to standard procedures of community outreach. Farmer's methods, reflected in his organization, Partners for Health, has been highly effective in getting Haitians, Rwandans, Russians among others to adhere to treatment regimens for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
Also our own community work at The Field Museum provides some nice case studies of how an asset-based approach has led to involvement in climate action of organizations that in the past have not worked on environmental issues--but using the asset-based approach become engaged in them because they see that the work benefits them as well and helps them achieve their goals. Our most recent work is the Chicago Community Climate Action Toolkit. Take a look particularly at theABOUT page to read about our approach. You'll see that as anthropologists, we focus a lot on intangible cultural assets, like heritage traditions, in addition to community assets like local organizations/institutions.
Finally someone asked if there are case studies we regularly refer to. I often refer to Mercado Central, which you probably all know because Jody highlights it regularly too. It's highlighted right now on the ABCD Institute homepage:http://www.abcdinstitute.org/. Another example that I think is really cool--though I haven't been able to find out about how successful it has/n't been--is the Mali CultureBank.