Building What We Need, Together

What happens when we move beyond identifying what’s wrong and start building things people can actually use? Beginning in February 2027, ASDAH’s first Case Study Lab will bring small groups of people together to investigate real problems, learn from research, professional and community knowledge, and lived experience, and create practical tools for doing things differently. This isn’t a traditional class. There won’t be an instructor telling each cohort what its answer should be.ASDAH is creating the container. Participants will help determine what gets built inside it. The work will culminate at the ASDAH Practice to Power Summit, June 4–6, 2027, where cohorts will share what they created and help the larger community think about how these tools can be put into practice.

Who Can Participate?

All are welcome to sign up. You don’t have to be an ASDAH member. You don’t need a particular degree, credential, profession, or job title. At the same time, we want to be explicit about whose knowledge, experiences, and leadership we intend to center. We especially want to center fat people who are Black, Indigenous, other people of color who are from or have ethnic origins in the Global South, gay, queer, nonbinary, trans, superfat+, disabled, chronically ill, and people living at other oppressed intersections. We want that diversity reflected in both lived experience and professional experience. We want people working within healthcare systems and people who know exactly where those systems fail them. We don’t want marginalized people invited simply to tell their stories while people with professional credentials are treated as the experts. Many of the people we’re seeking occupy both spaces, and lived and community knowledge are themselves forms of expertise. We also welcome co-conspirators who don’t experience these same levels or intersections of marginalization and are prepared to contribute without expecting to be centered.

The Six Cohorts

Clinical Care Redesign: What would healthcare systems, policies, procedures, and clinical practices look like if fat people’s dignity, autonomy, access, and care were built into them from the beginning?

Compassionate Care Audit: How can organizations and providers meaningfully examine whether their environments, policies, equipment, language, and practices actually provide compassionate and accessible care for people across the size spectrum?

Research & Evidence Translation in the Age of GLP-1s: How do we critically engage rapidly changing research without abandoning questions about weight stigma, autonomy, conflicts of interest, research representation, harm reduction, informed consent, and the people most affected by clinical recommendations?

Superfat & Infinifat Access: What practical tools can help organizations move beyond generic claims of size inclusion and address the equipment, space, mobility, policy, procedural, and cultural barriers experienced by people at the highest end of the size spectrum?

Provider Behavior & Anti-Bias Practice: What actually helps providers recognize, interrupt, and change anti-fat behavior in practice, and how can we move beyond awareness toward accountability and measurable change?

Community-Based Care & Mutual Aid: What can care look like outside conventional healthcare systems, and what tools can help communities build sustainable models of support, resource sharing, accessibility, and collective care?

Each cohort will identify a problem within its subject area and create something useful in response. That might be a framework, audit, protocol, guide, implementation tool, policy template, educational resource, or something we haven’t imagined yet.

When and Where?

Cohorts will begin in February 2027 and work through May. The Practice to Power Summit will take place June 4–6, 2027. The Case Study Lab and Summit are fully virtual. Sign up for the 2027 Case Study Lab by December 31, 2026.

Cohort Size and Placement

Each cohort will include approximately 5–8 participants, for approximately 30–48 participants across the six cohorts. This is a sign-up process, not a competitive application process. We’re composing working groups, not deciding who is most qualified to speak about a subject.

ASDAH will use participants’ cohort preferences, scheduling compatibility, workable group size, and the mix of lived, community, professional, clinical, academic, and other forms of knowledge to compose the cohorts. We will be intentional about creating meaningful opportunities for people most affected by anti-fatness and intersecting systems of oppression to shape what gets built. If more people sign up than we can reasonably accommodate, ASDAH will create a standby pool based on participants’ stated cohort interests and availability. Being placed on standby does not mean someone was unqualified or rejected; it means the initial cohort reached its workable capacity.

People You’d Like to Work With

The Sign-Up Form includes an optional space to name people you would especially like to work with or people you believe would bring something valuable to the Case Study Lab. Naming or nominating someone does not guarantee that you will be placed together and does not register that person. Every participant must complete their own Case Study Lab Sign-Up Form, including the Participant & Educational Use Agreement, by December 31, 2026.

Do I Have to Be an ASDAH Member?

No. ASDAH membership isn’t required to participate, and membership status won’t determine cohort placement.ASDAH now offers more opportunities to join at a lower cost than we have previously, including BIPOC and Low Income membership rates for people who qualify. Joining is welcomed and encouraged. It isn’t required.

What Does It Cost?

Nothing. There is no fee to participate in a Case Study Lab cohort. Cohort participants will also attend the June 2027 Practice to Power Summit at no cost. Summit registration is included with cohort participation.

ASDAH Members attending the Summit who are not cohort participants: $50

Non-Members: $150

Join ASDAH + Summit Registration Bundle: $200

How the Cohorts Will Work

ASDAH will establish the overall structure, deadlines, expectations, and support for the Lab. Within that structure, each cohort will decide how it works.

Groups will determine meeting schedules, communication methods, facilitation, note-taking and documentation, research responsibilities, writing and editing, project management, decision-making, conflict and repair practices, presentation responsibilities, accessibility needs, workload distribution, authorship, and credit.

ASDAH leadership will be available to advise, facilitate, troubleshoot, and step in when additional support is needed.

Program Timeline

February — DEFINE: Form the cohort, create group agreements, determine roles, choose the problem or question, and establish the scope.

March — INVESTIGATE + DESIGN: Gather research, community and lived knowledge, existing resources, unanswered questions, and possible approaches.

March 31 — PROJECT CHECKPOINT: Working session title, 2–3 sentence description, and expected deliverable due.

April — BUILD: Develop the cohort’s tool, framework, guide, protocol, audit, educational resource, or other project.

April 30 — PROGRAM LOCK: Final public-facing title, 75–150 word description, learning objectives, presenter names, and basic presentation format due.

May 14 — REVIEW DRAFT: Presentation draft, complete references, and accompanying resources due to ASDAH.

May 21 — ASDAH FEEDBACK COMPLETE: ASDAH review and feedback completed.

May 28 — FINAL MATERIALS LOCK: Final slides, references, handouts/resources, presenter order, and required materials due.

June 4–6 — PRACTICE TO POWER SUMMIT: Cohorts present their work and the community explores implementation and next steps.

Group Agreements, Conflict, and Changing Capacity

Collaborative work isn’t assumed to be conflict-free. Every cohort will establish group agreements addressing communication, accessibility, decision-making, workload and capacity, disagreement, accountability and repair, power, authorship, credit, and what happens when someone’s capacity changes. ASDAH leadership will be available to advise, facilitate, troubleshoot, or intervene when a group requests assistance or when intervention is necessary to support participants or program integrity.

People are not expected to remain in an unworkable group simply because they committed to participate.

Standby and Withdrawals

Participants can opt into standby for particular cohorts. Being on standby does not obligate someone to participate if a space later opens. If someone withdraws before cohort work begins, ASDAH may contact a standby participant. Once work is underway, ASDAH will not automatically replace someone who leaves; the remaining group and ASDAH will determine what makes sense based on the project’s stage and needs. If an active cohort drops below three participants, remaining members may ask ASDAH to help identify additional participants, contact people who expressed interest, provide additional facilitation or structure, or determine another way forward.

Research, Evidence, and References

The Case Study Lab makes room for multiple forms of knowledge, including lived experience, community knowledge, professional expertise, research, and critical analysis. Every Summit presentation must include references for research, data, publications, frameworks, and other source materials used. References should also accompany written resources when applicable.

Continuing Education

ASDAH intends to apply for continuing education credit for eligible Case Study Lab participation and eligible educational sessions offered during the Practice to Power Summit. Approval cannot be guaranteed in advance. Final CEU availability, eligibility requirements, and the number of credits available will be announced after the appropriate review processes are complete.

We’re Building This While We Do It

We’re trailblazing. The Case Study Lab is new, and we’re going to learn things by doing it. We’ll plan carefully. We’ll create structure and expectations. We’ll communicate deadlines. We’ll provide resources. We’ll listen to participants. We’ll step in when support is needed, and we’ll adjust when something isn’t working.

We can’t promise perfection. What we can promise is that we’ll do the best we can, that our desire is to make this a positive and worthwhile experience for everyone involved, and that we’ll take what we learn seriously. The goal isn’t only six successful projects. The Case Study Lab itself is a project. We’re creating a model ASDAH can learn from, improve, and use to support collaborative work for years to come.

Ready to Sign Up?

Complete the 2027 Case Study Lab Sign-Up Form by December 31, 2026. The form includes the required Participant & Educational Use Agreement.

You don’t need to arrive with the answer. You don’t need to be an ASDAH member. You don’t need a particular credential or title. You do need a willingness to contribute, collaborate, learn, and help build something our communities can use