_edited.png){kind=small}
Our Work
What we have built,
and what it produced
Every engagement is designed to generate something real: evidence, tools, trained advocates, or changed policies.
Healthcare · Advocacy
Voices of Sickle Cell Disease: Transforming School Support Through Parent-Led Advocacy
Community-led advocacy initiative · North Texas and international settings
Children with sickle cell disease face a persistent structural gap in public schools: clinical care plans exist, but school personnel lack disease-management training, and parents shoulder the entire communication burden between hospitals and classrooms. This initiative was designed to close that gap from the inside, centering parents as the primary change agents rather than waiting for institutions to act.
Drawing on firsthand experience navigating this system as a parent, Salimatou Diallo developed the Integrated Care Advocacy Model (ICAM): a parent-led participatory action research framework that collects narrative data from families and translates it into bilingual school protocols. The model operates across two contexts: a resource-rich urban setting in North Texas and a resource-limited international setting, generating evidence applicable across diverse environments.
What This Work Produces
A bilingual Bridging Care Toolkit for school nurses and administrators, formal policy recommendations for state health departments, and a replicable parent-led advocacy model for children with chronic conditions.
Community Research · Civic Engagement
Community Gardening and Civic Participation Among Older Adults
Participatory research · DFW area and academic publication
Community gardens in the DFW area serve as informal civic hubs for immigrant, refugee, and older adult families, providing food access, social connection, cultural continuity, and pathways into civic life that formal institutions rarely document or support.
​
TVBC conducted participatory research examining how shared growing spaces build belonging, civic identity, and collective power among adults aged 55 and older. Participants were positioned as co-researchers from the start, shaping research questions and validating findings before publication. The study was presented at the George Mason University Leaving and Belonging Symposium and recognized with the 2026 ATTW Amplification Award.
What This Work Produced
Published research findings accepted for an edited academic volume, with recommendations for municipal planning and nonprofit programming serving older and immigrant communities.
Capacity Building · Community Advocacy
Building Community Advocacy Infrastructure Through the Client Voices Initiative
In direct service work with underserved communities in Dallas, Salimatou Diallo developed and scaled a structured community advocacy program from the ground up. What began as informal feedback collection grew into a full advocacy infrastructure, creating formal pathways for community members to participate in program design and organizational decisions that directly affected their lives.
​
The shift from individual navigation to collective organizing produced a 15 percent increase in participant satisfaction. More significant was what produced that number: people who had been navigating systems alone began to see themselves as part of something with shared stakes. That connective tissue is the model TVBC now scales through the Community Voices Initiative.
Participatory program design · Dallas, Texas
What This Work Produced
A replicable community advocacy infrastructure, a 15 percent increase in participant satisfaction, and the foundational methodology behind TVBC's approach to participatory program design.
Storytelling · Public Advocacy
The Art of Storytelling Program
Community engagement initiative · Dallas-Fort Worth area
Individuals from marginalized communities carry powerful stories about resilience, displacement, and rebuilding, yet rarely have access to a structured, safe space to share them publicly. The Art of Storytelling Program was built to change that. Using the L.E.A.D. framework (Lead, Empower, Advocate, Develop) the 12-week program guides participants from discovering their voice to crafting and presenting a polished public narrative.
​
Participants come from diverse backgrounds across resettlement services, economic empowerment programs, and community support initiatives. The program culminates in a Storytelling Night showcase where graduates present to community members, partners, and local supporters — creating a public platform for voices that are too often absent from civic conversation.
What This Work Produces
Trained storytellers with durable self-advocacy skills, a digital archive of community narratives, and a cohort of community ambassadors who represent TVBC at events, school visits, and local panels throughout the year.