Life Along the Streetcar with Tom Heath from The Heath Team Nova Home Loans

This week we discuss various community partners collaborating for Covid responses

Today is April 19th my name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to “Life Along the Streetcar”.

Each and every Sunday our focus is on Social, Cultural and Economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban Core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A Mountain to UArizona and all stops in between. You get the inside track- right here on 99.1 FM, streaming on DowntownRadio.org- we’re also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio app.

Reach us by email [email protected] — interact with us on Facebook @Life Along the Streetcar and follow us on Twitter @StreetcarLife

Our intro music is by Ryanhood and we exit with Whiskey Treats

We start today with a story of giving the shirt off your back

Transcript

04/20/2020

Community Collaborations

Good morning, Beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo. You’re listening to KTDT Tucson. Thanks for spending part of your brunch our with us on your downtown Tucson Community sponsored rock and roll radio station. This week, we discuss various Community Partners collaborating for COVID-19 responses. 

Today is April 19th, my name is Tom Heath and you are listening to Life along the streetcar. Each and every Sunday, our focus is on social, cultural, and economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban core. We shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A Mountain to UArizona and all stops in between, you get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM. 

Streaming on DowntownRadio.org, also available on your iPhone or Android. Just head over to your app store and get the Downtown Radio Tucson app and take us wherever you go. If you want to contact us on the show. It’s pretty simple [email protected] and on that website LifeAlongTheStreetcar.org.  All of our past episodes can be found. We’re also on Facebook and the occasional tweet from at streetcar life. 

We’re going to start today with the story of giving the shirt off your back. Well, not quite off your back, but Ben Corn of Safeguard, which is a company here in Tucson that works on promotional products and they do those things to help keep you top of mind with your clients. One of those items that they use is lots of shirts and clothing. Well, Been Corn donated several boxes of cotton t-shirts to a local clothing designer Laura tanzer and what’s Laura Tans are doing with those the Lord tanzer is disassembling those shirts cutting them up and turning them in to masks that she can then get into the community and keep the medical grade masks for the medical professionals. That is an example of a collaboration. We may not have seen. In January or February, but it’s March and April around our community is stepping up. So kudos to Ben Corn of Safeguard and Laura Tanzer for making us a little bit of a safer place to be and that is the theme of today’s show: Community Partners. 

They may not have been Partners in the past. They are certainly coming together for our future. Another shout-out today to a real estate agent here in town Tanya Barnett. She has a go fund me site which will link to after the show here and that GoFundMe site is called Help feed our Frontline and she is taking all those donations. She is using that to buy meals for Hospital workers across our community. And of course she is using local businesses to provide those meals. So again another example of the community stepping up an You’re organizing it and spreading the love not just through food but also being intentional about the partners and who is providing that food will link over to that GoFundMe site. If you head over to our Facebook page, which is Life along the streetcar you’ll find it there and that leads us into really our feature for today. 

We’re going to talk about a collaboration in which I’m involved as is Frank Powers, he’s another DJ here on the station several Community Partners involved and we’re going to talk a little bit about Tucson Helping Tucson on today’s show. I have no guess you’re going to hear my voice and if that bothers you this would be a good time to tune us out but next week. I’ll be back with some more guests, but I did want to share with you a quite a bit about what’s happening with the organization effort called Tucson helping Tucson. One of the big pieces of this collaboration is fundraising. We’re trying to put as much money as we can into the coffers of the community Investment corporation here in Tucson cic. They are a local nonprofit. They’ve been around since 1996 with a primary purpose of helping with economic development of our small business Community. Well, obviously that development is turned into sort of a life-saving practical. Location instead of their normal practice that they are using their funds and raising funds to help small businesses weather this shutdown. 

They’ve come up with some very creative ways. And we’re going to talk about a few of those here after the break they’ve come up with some creative ways to get money into the hands of these investors and so Tucson helping Tucson is a fundraising effort with both large donors from our corporate sponsors as well as individual. Nurse from just everyone on the streets donating, you know, even a dollar. We have a on our first night of fundraising where we live stream to broadcast. We had someone donate $2 and they had posted on Facebook that their account contained two dollars and thirty cents and of that they donated $2 for the cause. I don’t use a goose bumps to think about what people are going through and the way that they’re willing to step up. 

One of those individual stepping up. We talked about her a little bit last week is Kristen Tovar and her team over at why I love where I live. There are small business. They are certainly feeling the Pains of what’s going on and they are doing everything within their power to help ease the pain of others and they’ve stepped up in a big way with Tucson Helping Tucson and they have a shirt specifically designed that has this really cool Tucson together front and then talks about helping to set up in Tucson on the back. They’re selling these shirts will send a link to you via our Facebook page. And if you were to purchase one of those all of the proceeds are going to the effort with Tucson helping Tucson and the community Investment corporation. 

So a huge shout out to The folks over at why I love where I live. And also a thank you to Ryan trait of say Wells designs for creating the graphic. So you have graphic designer. You have a shirt made you have a retailer and the retailer instead of profiting off of this is turning over those proceeds to a fundraiser with other local community advocates. We’ll be back in a few minutes to talk about some of the details of Tucson helping Tucson as well as some of the other fundraising efforts and Community collaborations underway here in the Old Pueblo, but I first want to remind you that you are listening to Life along the streetcar on Downtown Radio 99.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtown Radio dot-org. 

Well. I do hope you discover the power of underwriting with Downtown Radio. I personally For my mortgage business and been very thankful that as Community needs have popped up downtown radios able to support a lot with the PSAs as public service announcements and they do so because of their Community Focus, but also because Underwriters pay for for a lot of air time here with the station. So that is another way that you can help our communities by supporting places like downtown radio, which are supporting others. In our community before the break, we’ve talked a little bit about some collaborations here in Tucson. 

Just a couple ways people are energizing the folks around them to do good and wanted to share with you a little bit of the nuts and bolts of a program called Tucson helping Tucson. It’s quite an elaborate setup and it’s got a lot of beneficiaries which sometimes makes it a little bit more complicated to explain. Just wanted to share with you some of the things that are happening under that program and a quick. Weimer I am involved and have been since the beginning with this so I am a little bit partial to the work that is being done here in the community. Hopefully I can give it a good explanation as to why I think it is a worthwhile fund to explore the key component of this is the underlying organization which receives all of the funds. It’s a group called the community Investment corporation of Tucson cic, and they are taking the funds that are raised 100% of them and they are creating different streams to help our small business Community. They are taking no Administration fees. So the money we raise the money that you donate will go to cic directly and then into the hands of our small business community. 

The ways that they’re doing it, there’s some traditional Concepts they are doing microloans up to ten thousand dollars for a business. When we first rolled out this concept there was a lot of questions as to why we would do a loan in this environment and why we would require people to pay back that are going through so much hardship and the answer is quite simple. It’s a pay it back to pay it forward concept think of these more as pledges than loans. Someone may get a $10,000 microloan. There are some qualifications and you can check us cic which will link for for more details. Aperture can qualify for a $10,000 Loan in most cases. Those are going to be no payments due for at least six months and when payments are due the business owner is able to base their repayment off of their revenue and at a period of time that’s established during the application process. The debt is Forgiven. 

So even if they’ve only been able to pay a small amount back the debt will be forgiven. The business owner has no obligation. There’s no securitized debt. There’s no personal guarantees. This is simply a way to help Infuse businesses with some Capital to get through the next few months. And if they are able we ask them to pay it back to pay it forward because there are going to be businesses that have more needs as the year progresses and if we can get some of those funds back to The cic then they can get back into the hands of our business owners. And the concept now is even gone beyond this covid-19 mess that we’re dealing with and creating a small business fund that will help these these entrepreneurs manage non covid related emergencies in the years to come. 

So it’s a great starting Foundation a huge component a big supporter of this and a huge influence on this has been the Tucson’s Metro chamber. And local first Arizona between the two of them. They are in contact with hundreds of businesses in the area and have provided feedback to the committee and to the community Investment corporation on where the needs are the most so that is a big chunk of the money that’s being raised is going into micro loans for these businesses with a pledge to pay it back to pay it forward if Abel there’s also grants up to $2,500. These are just straight out grants that are being administered through cic in a partnership with local first, Arizona. These are non repayable. They are simply a stopgap to get you from point A to point B a little bit less on the funding and a lot less on the restrictions and a third and probably one of the most creative ways for someone like myself who doesn’t this world that much was very surprised to see how well this is working. 

But the community of estimate Corporation is working with small businesses on their own investment strategies through for lack of a better word crowdfunding. It’s really a community investment into that business. So if you’re a local business and you have a loyal following you can create through a couple of different platforms that the cic can help you manage. 

You can create a funding mechanism where your patrons can donate to the longevity. Of your business and probably donates the wrong word because which really what you’re doing is you’re investing with the potential of being paid back. So if I participate in these I can put money in and when the time is right potentially get paid back by the business through this crowd funding source where the community Investment corporation is helping out is they are creating in some cases a matching opportunity. So if the business can raise x amount of dollars dollars the community vestment Corp can match that they’re also providing probably the most importantly the guidance on how to set it up how to manage it how to promote it and they’ve had a couple of success stories right off the bat. They have helped a couple of businesses raise about ten twelve thousand dollars each and just a matter of a few days. So it’s a huge opportunity for businesses to take ownership and work with their patrons on their investment strategy for the future. 

That’s why the community Investment corporation is the central piece of Tucson helping Tucson and the the need for getting funds to them is so that they as a local provider can distribute them back within our community any and a creative and manageable way. The other thing that’s extremely important about using an organization that is local is it makes them attentive to the needs of our local businesses and that’s I’m through Community feedback feedback from the chamber feedback from local first, Arizona and it’s likely that as we roll into met the needs could change as the economy starts to reopen the needs of these businesses may change and having the money in the hands of their local provider that’s been doing this since 1996 means that we put it in the hands of an organization who can be extremely adaptable. and flexible, so if the needs of the business Community changes Then the way the funds are distributed can also change. 

Community Investment Corp is a key partner in making the two side helping to Saint movement. Click along. Well, how do we raise money? That’s that’s the question. So we get the money over to the community vestment Corp, that’s fantastic. But how are we raising money? But doing it in a couple of ways one is keep in mind. This is a this is a regional wide effort Tucson Metro Area includes all the businesses and all the people in that general area, which there’s about a million residents in a Metro Tucson area. So the idea with Tucson helping Tucson is to approach the large corporations as well as individuals small donors and collectively work on this business relief program. In exchange for your donation the team at Tucson helping Tucson is putting on a weekly content variety show every Saturday saw the third episode last night that up of that to our event there from seven and nine ish on Saturday nights. It’s local content provided by I’m sorry, its original content provided by local artists who have submitted for a shot to being on the show. 

The original group of Tucson helping Tucson raised money outside of the small business Relief Fund, they raised money for a production. So they actually have a budget they are paying artists to submit this work if selected for the show an artist gets paid. There’s also a weekly fan-favorite prize that’s been sponsored by another underwriter and at the end of this the artists have an opportunity to win up to $1,000. From a grant from a another underwriter. So as a local musician as a local comic dancer poet whatever type of artistic talents you may have you can send in a donation. I’m sorry, you can send in a submission to tht at Brink.com course, we’ll have that on our web page or Facebook page after the show here tht at break.com what they’re asking for is about a three. It production they are looking for quality and they will give you feedback. If something isn’t quite to the standards that they’re looking for for the show. Maybe can revise that for down the road. 

So these artists are being paid. They’re creating content. They’re uploading it and they’re performing in some cases content created just for Tucson helping Tucson tht TV. That’s what we call it the The show itself is live-streamed every Saturday from 7:00 and 9:00. We have a host who you will probably recognize if you listen to the station often as name is Frank Powers. He has hosted several shows on downtown radio and he’s been the MC of events all over Tucson pretty recognizable name and someone who has a lot of energy for this and from the Comforts of his own living room. He is the MC and in that he has live interviews with our guests they will have For mance’s from our musicians. They will interview the musicians. It’s a Well Done to our broadcast and it’s all pulled together by another local company called Brink media break is donating a good chunk of their expertise as an in-kind donation to the cause and from a studio. They’re able to pull together the live interviews the live MC the recorded content and put together a very good. 

Weekly show and because of social distancing and safety precautions at no point. Is there ever more people in a room than would be If they were not doing the show, so in the studio, for example, there are two individuals one is in a class sound booth. The other is outside of that Booth each of the performers performs from their own home and RMC MCS from his own home. Great concept Tucson helping Tucson.com check it out. You’ll see our last three episodes on there and there’s a page called fan favorites where you can vote for your favorite performance of the night help them earn an extra hundred bucks. 

My name is Tom Heath. You are listening to Life along the streetcar Downtown Radio 99.1 FM available for streaming on Downtown Radio dot-org. 

We are approaching the end of episode number 129 129. You don’t have started this show back in 2017. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get through the first year let alone get into triple digits on the on the show number. So pretty excited about that and very thankful for all the guests who have come on and made this a fun and enjoyable effort for myself and hopefully a valuable and source of information for you The Listener which is why we’re all here today shows been about collaboration. We’ve talked about the way a clothing supplier for promotional products was able to support a local. Dressmaker and combined they made cotton masks for our community also talked about the team at why I love where I live and say well designs to come up with a t-shirt with donations a proceeds going to Tucson helping Tucson and a real estate agent here in town tenure Barnett who is working to feed the front line with a go fund me site, we’ll link to all of those Partners on our Facebook page, which is Life along the streetcar and invite you to share other collaborations so much is happening. 

I know groups are getting together and virtually supporting each other their social groups business groups. There are philanthropic groups self-help groups groups for seniors groups for front lines group for medical workers groups for our employees groups for our small businesses groups for Those that are serving Us in the trucking and grocery industry all kinds of love being shared in our community and Across the Nation challenging times for all of us. Of course. And when we get to the other side of this, I think we’ll learn some valuable lessons and hopefully treat each other a little bit better. as a community Tucson helping Tucson big effort. 

Hope you can support us want to thank those that have like downtown radio giving us some PSAs and allow me to talk about it on the air and having Frank Powers downtown radio. DJ is also on some other stations here in town and a big supporter of downtown 4th Avenue and small businesses himself a small business owner and the owner of the comic book mobile the Powers your BFF your best Frank forever is the host and Emcee of Tucson helping two sons weekly Telethon. Hope you had a chance to see it last night. There was some funny skits a couple of very insightful interviews and some great music by a local band here called whiskey treats and we are going to leave you today with music from them. It’s off of a 2015 album called treat yourself. And this is the song that I would imagine will be singing down the code that chance where we get to leave our house where we can get together we can go to our favorite places. 

We can talk amongst ourselves and physical presence will have our favorite bartenders dishing out the drinks. My guess is there will be some hugs and some tears. But this is a song from whiskey treats. They were the musical guest last night on Tucson helping Tucson tht TV and this is their song. Best day of the year because that’s what that day will be. We’re going to leave you with that here in just a moment. But I want to remind you that you are listening to downtown radio and 99.1 FM. You can stream it on Downtown Radio dot org. You can hook us up with a an app for the downtown radio and put us on your smartphone. My name is Tom Heath the show you been listening to is Life along the streetcar. Each week we focus on the social economic and cultural impacts and Tucson’s Urban core. We invite you to come back at 11 o’clock next week for more exciting interviews and such. On Life along the streetcar until then please be safe be well be kind be supportive and thanks for everything Tucson is doing to help Tucson. Here we go. Whiskey treats. 

It’s the best day of the year. 

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