[Ailist] AI Newbie

[faith at bayflash.com]

Good Morning, All!

New to the list, new to Appreciative Inquiry. I would really  
appreciate any guidance you could provide.

My agency, a state sexual violence coalition, provides funding and  
support to my state's rape crisis programs. Part of my job is to  
perform site visits and help programs provide better services to rape  
survivors. Certainly an Appreciative Inquiry opportunity!

Another part of my work is to help these same programs meet our  
certification requirements so they can continue to receive funding. We  
have standards that must be met (in some cases, statutorily), and so  
part of the task is, in fact, to find out where gaps exist, and  
provide help where they do. To me, this feels a little less  
AI-friendly, partly because the consequence of 'failure' is to have  
one's funding pulled.

I'd like to apply appreciative inquiry principles to what I do, and  
I've been given the go-ahead to try. What I need is a starting point.  
A few books or other resources that fit our context, as our financial  
resources are limited and so I pretty much need to buy 'correctly' the  
first time. Do you all have any ideas?

Any other thoughts?

Thanks so much for your time.

Warm regards,
Faith