How We Work Together

The Four Sacred Practices.

Methods used not just to gather information, but to create counterspaces where communities can heal, connect, and see their wisdom reflected back.

Our Services

Evaluation as a sacred practice of bearing witness.

Whether you're an organization, funder, or research institution, our services meet you where you are and grow alongside the work. Each practice is shaped to honor the specific community at the center of the engagement.

Practice One

Story-Centered Evaluation Design

Co-creating frameworks where community narratives drive the questions and shape the entire evaluation process. We design evaluations that begin with what communities are already telling us, then build the measurement around honoring those truths rather than translating them into something that fits a pre-existing framework.

Our story-centered designs have shaped programs across the cancer care continuum (for patients and caregivers/care partners), maternal and child health, LGBTQ+ health, structural competency, healthcare navigation and with Medical Legal Partnerships (MLPs).

Narrative Inquiry Community-Led Frameworks Participatory Design
Practice Two

Arts-Based Community Engagement

Using poetic transcription, journey mapping, Photovoice, and focus groups as counterspaces. These methods unlock community wisdom in ways traditional evaluation cannot, creating healing spaces for authentic dialogue and giving communities room to name their realities in their own language and form.

Arts-based methods make evaluation more truthful, not just more engaging. They open access to stories that surveys, interviews, and metrics often miss entirely.

Poetic Transcription Journey Mapping Photovoice Focus Groups
Practice Three

Accompaniment in Practice

Walking alongside organizations to develop sustainable, culturally responsive evaluation practices that outlast any single project. We share skills, build infrastructure, and stay long enough that communities and organizations carry the work forward themselves.

Our accompaniment work draws on two foundational frameworks: Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Engagement (CREE) and Community-Centered Health, Arts, Research, Trauma, and Systems (C-HeARTS).

CREE Framework C-HeARTS Framework Long-Term Partnership
Practice Four

Poetry as Witness

Translating community experiences into poems and narratives that serve as both powerful truth and opportunities for collective healing and advocacy. Dr. Johnson is a Certified Listener Poet, and this practice draws directly on that training to honor stories with the precision and care they deserve.

Poetry is not a softer version of evaluation. It is a form of evidence that can move hearts and systems where data alone cannot reach.

Listener Poetry Narrative Translation Advocacy Storytelling
Plus

Equity-Focused Coaching & Training

Beyond evaluation engagements, we build organizational capacity for culturally responsive practice, trauma-informed approaches, and the co-creation of community action plans. Coaching and training can stand alone or pair with any of the four sacred practices.

Where We Work

Health equity work across communities.

Dr. Johnson's two decades of evaluation experience span communities navigating health disparities at the intersections of structural violence.

Care Across the Cancer Care Continuum
Maternal & Child Health
LGBTQ+ Health
Structural Competency
Healthcare Navigation
Selected Engagements

Trusted by funders, partners, and communities.

A representative selection of recent and ongoing evaluation, coaching, and arts-based partnerships. Each engagement is shaped to honor the specific community and the question at its center.

Curious whether we might be a fit?

The best engagements start with a real conversation about what you're trying to learn and what your community needs from the process.

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