{"id":33495,"date":"2026-03-06T16:42:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T22:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devcofi.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=33495"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:20:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:20:42","slug":"talibah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cofionline.org\/es\/talibah\/","title":{"rendered":"Talibah"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.5″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

\n

“I didn\u2019t want to stop.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Meet Talibah. She\u2019s the proud mother of four. In addition to raising her children, she is also a caretaker for her mother and brother. After attending her first COFI training in 2013, Talibah kept asking, “What’s next?” Since then, she has progressed from a parent leader to a leading organizer in Chicago.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s Next?\u201d<\/h4>\n

In 2013, Talibah\u2019s youngest child at the time was in preschool. She noticed a COFI flyer in her son\u2019s cubby and became curious. She called the number on the flyer and spoke with a woman named Veronica, a COFI organizer at the time. Talibah said her energy was powerful over the phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was excellent, and she convinced me to take the training, and it was just like I didn’t want to stop. After completing the three phases of COFI training, I kept asking: what’s next?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turning a Dream into Action and Becoming an Organizer<\/h4>\n

After completing the three phase of COFI training, Talibah knew she wanted to support parents in a bigger way and started to envision how she could become an organizer. When she envisioned success, she looked to her first COFI organizer, Veronica, and her commitment to using The COFI Way<\/em><\/span><\/a> to build strong relationships with parents and partners in Englewood.<\/p>\n

“I knew I wanted to do that,” she said. \u201cI wanted to actually be in the community with parents supporting their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the opportunity came to become a COFI trainer and train other parents, she thought she knew the manual and The COFI Way<\/em> already from her experience as a parent leader.<\/p>\n

However, one training session with longtime leader Ms. Rose changed her perspective. At the end of the training, Ms. Rose told Talibah, “We need to talk.”<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she sat me down, and she basically scolded me in such a beautiful way because she made me think about what I was doing,” Talibah said. “Ms. Rose said to me, \u2018This training is serious. You are impacting families and parents’ lives. You have to know it, and it has to come from the heart.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Talibah said she knew that Ms. Rose believed in her, and it made her practice more \u2013 sometimes she practiced with her own kids! After a couple of years, Talibah started working with more Spanish-speaking parents and other communities outside of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a journey, but my time in each community shaped me into the organizer that I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Looking ahead\u2026<\/h4>\n

When Talibah envisions the future for COFI and parent organizing, she is already thinking about the next generation.<\/p>\n

“I see our children, our little ones, becoming the new leaders in our country, taking action and making changes that benefit everyone.”<\/p>\n

Listen to Talibah tell her story in her own words!<\/em><\/p>\n

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<< Do\u00f1a<\/span>\u00a0Mari’s Story<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.6″ _module_preset=”default” link_option_url=”\/leah\/” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

Leah’s Story >><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a1Les presentamos a Talibah! Tras asistir a su primera capacitaci\u00f3n de COFI en 2013, Talibah no dejaba de preguntar: "\u00bfQu\u00e9 sigue?". Desde entonces, ha pasado de ser una l\u00edder entre los padres a una destacada organizadora en Chicago.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":33526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"

\u201cWe will triumph and succeed in what we are asking for when we organize together.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>

Meet Mar\u00eda, or \u201cDo\u00f1a Mari\u201d as other parents call her as a sign of respect. She is the proud mother of eight children, grandmother to 14, great-grandmother to seven, and great-great-grandmother to one.<\/p>

\u201cI paved my path\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>

When Do\u00f1a Mari arrived in Chicago nearly 25 years ago, she started volunteering with her local school, and soon connected with COFI. She became friends with the other parents, and from then on, she said \u201cshe 's never left\u201d COFI.<\/p>

\u201cThey would have us talk one-to-one, to talk about our needs or how we felt. As they say, I paved my path. They helped me a lot.\u201d<\/p>

Do\u00f1a Mari also recalls how she had to figure out how the bus system worked in order to get to COFI and POWER-PAC IL meetings when her children weren\u2019t able to drive her.<\/p>

\u201cWith or without fear, I would make a mistake and get on another bus and go somewhere else. All of that helped me develop in COFI. And now I go to East St. Louis, I go to Aurora, and other places. We develop more and we learn from others that way.\u201d<\/p>

Turning Dreams into Action<\/strong><\/h4>

One of her team goals in Little Village was to secure a stop sign for a school. There were many accidents, and people were getting hurt.<\/p>

\u201cWe fought hard to get that stop sign and they put it there because of parents,\u201d she said.<\/p>

Another big goal was fighting for recess for all. \u201cThe children really needed recess,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause if a teacher simply goes outside for five or ten minutes to clear his head a little, why not the children? They need it, too.\u201d<\/p>

In 2005, Do\u00f1a Mari and several COFI-trained parents prioritized bringing recess back to elementary schools. Their campaign, Recess for All!, successfully restored recess for all 266,000 Chicago public elementary students in 2012. In 2021, they expanded this victory to the entire state of Illinois!<\/p>

\u201cWe had a strong voice because we went directly to talk to the person who is affecting us.\u201d<\/p>

Looking ahead\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>

Currently, Do\u00f1a Mari has been reflecting on the escalation of ICE deportations and federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. She worries for her community \u2013 especially children.<\/p>

As she looks ahead to COFI\u2019s future, she recognizes how important organizing and advocacy are to addressing the issues she\u2019s seeing unfold. That\u2019s why she hopes to see the organization grow more and reach more parents.<\/p>

\u201cWe will triumph and succeed in what we are asking for when we organize together.\u201d<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonials"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTalibah | COFI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meet Talibah. She\u2019s the proud mother of four. In addition to raising her children, she is also a caretaker for her mother and brother.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cofionline.org\/es\/talibah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Talibah | COFI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet Talibah. She\u2019s the proud mother of four. 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