Empowering Tomorrow's Leaders: A Conversation with Liana Sharp of United Way Tucson
On this week’s show, we’re going to revisit a 2021 conversation we had with Ray Flores of Flores Concepts. We’re going to discuss the impact and legacy of Monica Flynn and Carlotta Flores and learn how these two female entrepreneurs have spanned 100 years and created tremendous culinary success.
Today is March 26th, 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 the U of A 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 at LifeAlongTheStreetcar and follow us on Twitter @StreetcarLife
Our intro music is by Ryanhood and we exit with music from Jay Gray, “Chiefs Anthem.”
Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful sunny in the old pueblo. And you’re listening to KT DT, Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community sponsored rock and roll radio station.
Tom Heath
On this week’s show, we’re going to speak with Liana Sharp, the Community Engagement Director at the United Way of Tucson in Southern Arizona. We’re going to talk about the United Way’s impact and opportunities to support, especially in areas of youth leadership.
Tom Heath
Today is April 2, 2023. My name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to life along the streetcar. Each and every Sunday, our focus 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 the University of Arizona 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. By using our very own Downtown Radio Tucson app, you can interact with us on the show
Tom Heath
by going over to Facebook and Instagram. And if you want more information about us, our book past episodes, or just simply to contact us, head over to Lifealongthstreetcar.org. And of course you can listen to our podcast on all kinds of different platforms like Spotify, itunes, iHeartRadio or just simply ask your smart speaker to play Life Along the Streetcar podcast. All kinds of events hitting Tucson as spring is in its full fling here in the Tucson area. One event I’m looking forward to. I haven’t been to this before, it might be new this year. At least it’s not something I’ve seen before. It’s called drinking local, and it’s actually a product of the Arizona History Museum. So this is going to launch on April 20 and it looks like it’s going to run for about a year. And they’re going to have different exhibits on how brewing, distilling and winemaking have influenced Arizona’s community, the impact on economy, culture. So the idea of the historical impact of drinking locally and the
Tom Heath
cultural significance of that should be fun. They are having a kickoff event on April 19 with drinks and snacks from all kinds of local restaurants and establishments. You can find out more information there. I found it actually on Local First Arizona that they’re one of the big sponsors of this. So the event I saw on local first Arizona’s website under the events and it’s called drinking local Tucson 2023. So I kind of get this idea of grabbing a drink and sort of wandering around the History museum there on the campus and seeing if they will let us do that or not. Could be a fun time. Well, our feature today is on the United Way and some outreach programs that are underway and we invited in to the Tucson Gallery studio, Leanna Sharp. She is fairly new to Tucson in the last couple of years and been working with the United Way and she’s now in the role of the community engagement director. So she is out and about telling the world what is happening here in Southern Arizona with United Way.
Tom Heath
And they had a couple of cool events. One that caught my eye was about a youth leadership organization and upcoming social hour to learn more and get engaged with helping youth members. And they define that as from ages 16 to 24. So we sat down just a little bit earlier this week again over at the studios at the Tucson Gallery. So you hear a little bit of the background noise of life along the streetcar as life along the streetcar flows by us. In the interview, I enjoyed speaking with her. She’s a young professional. She’s new to Tucson, and I’m excited she’s here. She’s got a lot of energy and bringing a lot of positive experiences here to the Tucson area.
Liana Sharp
My name is Liana Sharp. I am the community engagement director at United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona.
Tom Heath
All right.
Tom Heath
How long have you been in this role?
Liana Sharp
A little well, technically, this role only a couple of months, but I’ve been at United Way in general for just under two years.
Tom Heath
Okay.
Tom Heath
How did you get involved with United Way?
Liana Sharp
Honestly, I found the job posting on LinkedIn and I interviewed for a different position and then was offered the community engagement manager role, which I accepted, and then was promoted last October to the director role.
Tom Heath
Good old social media still works.
Liana Sharp
It does.
Tom Heath
I’m sure most people know the name, but can you tell us just briefly what the organization does?
Liana Sharp
Yeah, of course. So United Way of Tucson, we have been in the community for over 100 years. This is our 101st year. A lot of people hear United Way and they honestly think we’re an airline. So definitely not that. We are a nonprofit that looks to convene the community. And we have three pillars financial, wellness, education, and healthy communities.
Tom Heath
So you convene the community? Is that what you said?
Liana Sharp
Yeah. So we are a community convener. We do bring a lot of different nonprofit partners together. We do look to better the Tucson and Southern Arizona community by bringing them together, promoting, like I said, the three pillars the education, financial, wellness, healthy communities. And that just varies with what we do with different partners.
Tom Heath
Okay. I think it was a big anniversary a few years ago, days of Caring. It’s a big annual event that you do.
Liana Sharp
Yes.
Tom Heath
And there was a mural that you were working on as an organization, which is really cool. It’s kind of like paint by numbers. So we got to talk to some folks back then. But you, of course, were not here at that point.
Liana Sharp
No.
Tom Heath
You decided to move out here in the Pandemic. You moved to Tucson, right?
Liana Sharp
Yes, I did.
Tom Heath
And did you come for the job or did you just come out to hang out?
Liana Sharp
No, I just came out to hang out. I had friends who lived out here at the time. It was cheaper to live out here. And here I am now working in the community and being a part of it and being at this position has really made me come to appreciate how much Tucson has to offer.
Tom Heath
Yeah, I think that’s kind of where the start of this show was five or six years ago. I’d been here for years and realized how amazing Tucson was, and I was kind of embarrassed that I didn’t jump in sooner. So it’s nice to hear that in your short time you’ve really kind of gotten engaged and out there in the community.
Liana Sharp
Yeah, definitely.
Tom Heath
So you’ve got some cool things that you’re doing. I think a lot of times when you talk about nonprofit organizations and community conveners, it sounds boring. Like you have a lot of lectures and you do a lot of statistics and metrics and all of that good stuff, but you like to have fun too. You guys get together.
Liana Sharp
Yeah, definitely. So wouldn’t be anywhere without statistics and data, that’s for sure. But really happy, that’s not part of my job. So, as the community engagement director, I work to do a lot of the events that we put on. So some of the big ones, we have our annual business breakfast that took place in February. We do, of course, have the days of caring that you mentioned. We have a couple of other events throughout the year as well. But the one that I’m involved in is actually one of our affinity groups. It’s called Young Leaders United. It is a group of young professionals. Twenty s. Thirty s. Forty s. But we’re not age checking you at the door when we have these events. Currently what we’re doing is we’re working on having social hours every second Wednesday of the month. It’s actually over just across the street at playground. What we’re doing is we’re just looking for new faces to come in, learn more about Ylu and United Way itself and kind of what we do.
Tom Heath
Learn more about why yes, sorry,
Tom Heath
I’m learning things. So what happens at these mixers then? Is it presentations or is it really just networking?
Liana Sharp
It’s really just networking since we’re kind of really focusing on building this group back up. Of course, COVID kind of took a lot of our social activities away. We’re really working on friend Raising right now. So we’re just inviting the community to come out, learn more about United Away and what we do. And then of course, focusing on the Young Leaders United service aspect, which is our opportunity youth in the community.
Tom Heath
Can you kind of give us maybe some more details or examples of how that group works to build up in the community?
Liana Sharp
Yeah, of course. So we do have a couple of different fundraising events. One of our most popular ones is our dive bar bus tour that we do twice a year.
Tom Heath
You do like to have fun.
Liana Sharp
We do, but it’s all for a good cause. We sell tickets. The proceeds do go back to United Ways. Work with opportunity. Youth. And what opportunity youth are, are individuals aged 16 to 24 who are currently not engaged in work or school. And what United Way does is we work with a lot of different partners in the area to go ahead and provide them with supplies that they need, whether that be GED, testing, transport, anything like that.
Tom Heath
Okay, so it’s about young leadership, but it’s also about then engaging that group to help them become kind of move into that leadership role.
Liana Sharp
It’s that, but it’s also kind of hard to explain. This is not the first time that I’ve had to explain what Young Leaders United is and what it focuses on. So Young Leaders United itself is a group of professionals throughout different aspects of the community, whether it be nonprofit partners, our corporate partners. And what we do is when we raise these funds, the funds come through United Way and then go to the community partners that work with these opportunity youth to help them get back connected to work, to school, whatever path they choose.
Tom Heath
Okay. And that seems very much in line with what I know of the United Way, that it does seem to be this facilitator that it’s the easy way to get the money into an organization that then exactly disperses it where it needs to go.
Liana Sharp
Yes, that’s it.
Tom Heath
And funding from the United Way, is that still primarily done through payroll deductions and individuals or where does your money come from?
Liana Sharp
Yeah, so a lot of it is our workplace campaigns. That’s not specifically my department, but I do know a little bit about it, where we do offer those payroll deductions, very easy to do. You set the amount, and then it just automatically comes out of your paycheck.
Tom Heath
Okay, so community engagement, what are some other things that we can kind of get a feel for what you do within the community?
Liana Sharp
Yeah. So our biggest one is, of course, the Days of Carrying event that we have every October this year, it’s taking place October 20 and 21st. We’re still currently in the process of reaching out to our nonprofit partners who usually partner with us on this event to get projects submitted and then volunteer registration will come later on in the year, usually around September 1. And that’s really what we’re looking for, is just more volunteers to get out into their community, learn more about United Way Days of Caring, these other nonprofit partners that we work with and then hopefully become volunteers for us, and then naturally down the line, hope they give us some money, become donors.
Tom Heath
Yeah, you get them suckered in with dive bar tours, and then they become longtime supporters. I didn’t realize it was over 100 years old and Days of caring, though, that’s a more recent correct.
Liana Sharp
That was started in 1999. IBM wanted to do a day of service for their employees and then it just really grew from that. So this year is our 24th annual and then next year very excited will be our 25th.
Tom Heath
So we’ll have to have you back to find out. I’m sure you’ll be doing something big for the 25th. We’re working on not to skip the 24th, definitely do the 24th, but yeah, that’s always exciting when you hit those milestones.
Tom Heath
We are back to the interview with Liana Sharp, the community engagement director for the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, in just a moment. But first I want to remind you that you are listening to life along the Streetcar, downtown radio, 99.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtownradio.org.
Tom Heath
I do enjoy my 07:00 a.m. Times with Paleo Dave every weekday gets my day going with a nice rock mix and kind of enjoy his self banter as he kind of fights between his caffeinated and over caffeinated self described states there. It’s fun to listen to him as well as listen to that fabulous music. But let’s get back into the second half of our interview today with Leanna Sharp. She is the community engagement director at the United Way here in Tucson in Southern Arizona. We really wanted to talk about some of their big upcoming events to make sure that you have time to get engaged with those and we’ve kind of touched on those, but we really want to dive a little bit more deeply into the programs and the impact.
Tom Heath
What are things like you’re looking for professionals to get involved with the leadership organization?
Liana Sharp
Yes, definitely. So, like I mentioned, our focus right now for the young leaders United, having these social hours is just for professionals to come out and network and learn more from these social hours. We’ve ended up having individual meetings with folks who have been interested in learning more. So that’s super helpful, but we are always looking for anyone who wants to learn more, maybe have a more intimate setting. I know there’s other networking groups that do have a lot of big events, but while you we really like these social hours because we can limit it to about 2025 people and you really just get to know people at them.
Tom Heath
And are you looking for any specific disciplines or are there any industries that are underrepresented that you’d like to see in there.
Liana Sharp
I mean, we could always use more corporate partners. We have some people on the while you membership that are from Caterpillar Raytheon, but anyone in their community that’s looking to expand their knowledge of United Way, maybe take it back to the workplace. But also I’m not trying to discredit that we’d love to have some more nonprofit partners in there too. Okay.
Tom Heath
And then we talked. I know I kind of joked about the beginning, but metrics and data are there some examples of how this program moves the needle and what impact it has within that age group of 16 to 24?
Liana Sharp
Yeah, definitely. So we mainly partner with the Goodwill Metro and we work with their Reengagement Center that is slightly off of Keynote Parkway. So we work with them to provide a lot of different support. So I want to say back in 2019, we donated a lot of computer equipment to them and actually podcast equipment to them because they have a lot of youth that go in there and are looking for different pathways to take in life. So we support that. Just recently, this year for our MLK Day of Service, we put together hygiene kits for opportunity youth and donated them to the Goodwill Rec Center to go ahead and have those be distributed. And really just the impact. I know that with our partnership we have exceeded the number of opportunity use that was our goal. Like we have helped more than what we originally thought we were going to help by having this partnership with Goodwill.
Tom Heath
Wow, that’s fantastic. That’s always the good news at the end of the day when you end up exceeding the expectations, which I would imagine from what I know of United Way is probably pretty high to begin with. Yes, to exceed that. So let me shift gears just a little bit here, but as a young professional yourself, I’d kind of like get your perspective on coming into Tucson. You okay to talk a little bit about that?
Liana Sharp
Yeah, definitely.
Tom Heath
You’ve gotten engaged with United Way, obviously, but that’s put you in this arena. People know the United Way, so then that gets you out into other organizations. Are you in Tucson Young Professionals or what is your path as a young professional?
Liana Sharp
Yeah, so I actually did just become a member of Tucson Young Professionals. United Way does have a partnership with them. Of course. A lot of our ideals overlap and a lot of our goals overlap. We just have this partnership to work on building a more equitable Tucson in Southern Arizona. So we are focusing on that. I did just go to one of their events last week. It was a lot of fun. But also it does get me out in the community more to go. Like I mentioned earlier, I went to the Fourth Avenue Street fair over the weekend. That was nice to see. So many different nonprofit partners out there. Tabling. I’m also involved in a couple of different nonprofits. I volunteer for the Humane Society. I also volunteer for Hermitage cat shelter. So it’s a lot of ways that I’ve become connected by working at a nonprofit and seeing what volunteer time can really assist with.
Tom Heath
Okay, so Humane Society and Heritage cat shelter. Is that a passion you developed here in Tucson, or is that something you brought with you?
Liana Sharp
I definitely brought that with me. I’ve always been passionate about pets.
Tom Heath
And where did you move from?
Liana Sharp
The St. Louis area.
Tom Heath
Okay, so Missouri, Kansas City. Chiefs fan, I assume.
Liana Sharp
Oh, yes, I am. It’s been a good year for that.
Tom Heath
All right, so as we wrap up here, just kind of any you’ve got the specific dates for the Young Leadership Network, what else is coming up that we can pitch or how do we get more information?
Liana Sharp
Facebook website, definitely. So United Wave Tucson does have a Facebook page. We’re also on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok actually, too. I believe so, but I’m not too familiar with that one. I don’t even have that. But we’re all over social media. You can find us anywhere. The next Young Leaders United Social Hour is coming up April 12 from five to seven at Playground Bar and Lounge. Super excited about that. After that, we do have our next 1, May 10. Also that day happening is our Circle of Excellence luncheon, which is just where we celebrate those workplace campaigns and all of that. And then the dive bar bus tour.
Tom Heath
Is May 20, and then all that information. United way of Southern Arizona. Is that the website?
Liana Sharp
So the website itself is Unitedwaytooson.org.
Tom Heath
Okay. And then you’d mentioned these social hours are limited in scope. So you have a small group. I’m assuming that you have to RSVP correct. You could be turned away. You can’t just show up.
Liana Sharp
Well, I mean, you can just show up. We are asking for a $5 donation to gain entrance into April’s event. Just so you know, we can start showing people the work that we do by having a small donation and showing what we can do with that and how we can impact the community with that. But, yeah, you can RSVP honestly, if you just go to Unitedwaytooson.org, there’s a link for affinity groups, and you would click on Young Leaders United. Otherwise it’s a very long URL. But even I don’t have memorized.
Tom Heath
All right, well, and we’ll link to that from our Facebook page as well. This is airing the first Sunday in April, so you got a week and a half or so to get registered for that and then some upcoming events. I did not know there was a dive tour bus dive tour. So I’m rethinking my calendar.
Liana Sharp
Well, you know, it’s in the evening. It’s from six to eleven. You have plenty of time to do things throughout the day.
Tom Heath
All right, Elena. Welcome to Tucson.
Liana Sharp
Thank you.
Tom Heath
Thanks for jumping in with both feet and really supporting our community. Really appreciate the work that United Way does across the country, of course. But really in Tucson, I’ve been able to see it really up close and personal, and your reach is just tremendous. And I appreciate you and your organization for making that happen.
Liana Sharp
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.
Tom Heath
Once again, that was Liana Sharp. She is the community engagement director at the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, talking about some different opportunities to get involved with United Way as they help members of our community do some good stuff. You may recall early in the show, it was probably, I guess, their 20th anniversary. Gosh, it’s been five years. It’s their 20th anniversary. They did a really cool mural downtown in Barrio Viejo Crossland Convention Center. It’s on the back of the La Suprema Tortilla factory, which has now been converted into a co working space. And we did a feature on that back in 2019 and it was part of their Days of Caring. The artist came out, drew out the mural, and the community came in and filled in the coloring. It was pretty much a paint by numbers mural. And I don’t know, I thought that was a fun project for their 20th, and with next year being their 25th, I wonder what big things they’ll be doing. If you wanted to hear that interview about
Tom Heath
the Days of Caring in 2019, or if you want to hear our interview about the coworking space that moved into that building, the La Suprema building, you can find information about both of those on our website, lifelongthstreetcar.org. There’s a search bar. You just pop in there. Days of caring. United Way. You’ll pull that up and then you can also put in La Suprema and you’ll pull up the information about the coworking space. It’s hard to believe it’s five years. I mean, we talk about that on the show that we’ve been doing this for over five years. But gosh, I don’t know, it just kind of hit me. That’s a long time to be talking about Tucson and all the amazing things happening. Well, you are listening to all those amazing things on our show Life Along the Streetcar. We are on downtown radio, 99.1 FM, and you can always stream us on downtownradio.org.
Tom Heath
Thank you very much.
Liana Sharp
Enjoy your evening. Bye bye.
Tom Heath
Well, the brother Mock there with his radio club crawl. Just one of his shows. He also does the Music Invasion on Thursdays, another deep dive into lots of fabulous music that I don’t think I would hear if it wasn’t for Downtown Radio. So I appreciate all the volunteer DJs taking their time to create playlists and then when they air and give us that background and that history as to why it was important to them to put them on the list. Great group of individuals making Downtown Radio a wonderful station to listen to. You can check out the entire schedule on Downtownradio.org. Typically Monday through Saturday, it’s a more rock mix feel to it. And then on Sundays we kick it off with Little Leaf Radio at 07:00. A.m. Mr. Nature. Love that show. I dare you to listen to it and just not end up in a good mood. And then he’s followed by the art of easing, which is right before us. And it’s hard, I think, to get off the couch. When you listen to a DJ bank there. He kind of puts you into a mellow
Tom Heath
mood. I’m pretty sure most people listen to this show because they’re just kind of easing and they don’t really want to get up and change the channel and I appreciate that. And then after us, we have a couple of more talk shows, words and work with Ted Prazalski. He talks to writers and members of the labor movement here in Tucson. And then at noon, heavy mentor with Ty Logan. Great individual. We did a feature on him a couple of years ago. You can find about on our website on the search bar. Just put in heavy mentor Ty Logan. We did a two part series because his story is just fascinating, how he’s overcome so many challenges to end up where he is. But check all that out on Downtown Radio. Anytime you tune in, you’re going to hear something that’s just unique and not being played elsewhere. I can’t guarantee you’re going to like everything. There’s some stuff on the show, on the radio that I listen to that I’m not sure if I like it or not. But I got to be honest, if you’re not expanding
Tom Heath
your reach there and finding a few things that aren’t your exact music style, you might find a few things that you like and don’t like. And I really enjoy that about downtown radio. And while you’re over there, just remember we’re an all volunteer station. So if you hit that donate button and put a few dollars in our pocket, that’s going to go to helping us provide more programming for you and better equipment, making us just sound all that much better. All that much better as good English? I don’t know. Well, let’s see it’s, April. What do we got? We’ve got some cool stuff coming up. We’re going to talk to a violin player from Costa Rica that’s over here at the U of A. Going to be an interesting journey and how she got here. We also have stuff coming up at the museum of art. They have their biennial local Arizona artist exhibit getting ready to launch here. We’ll talk with them. And fire. Fire. We got some people doing some amazing things over on Fourth Avenue with fire dances and such,
Tom Heath
and we’ll chat with them all. That coming up here in the month of April. If there’s ever a topic you want us to cover, something that you think we should be discussing, hit us up. I always think about the fact that you’re listening to this show and you’re probably involved. You probably know what’s going on in our community. So tell us. Tell us what we need to share. You can do that through our Instagram or Facebook, or you can head over to our website, lifelongstreetcar.org. Contact us. You can email us, contact at lifelong streetcar.org, whatever you want. Just let us know about these hidden gems, and we will get the word out about them. And in honor of our guest today, Liana Sharp, who came here just recently from St. Louis, mentioned she is a big Kansas City Chiefs fan. They had a pretty good year this year. We found a single from 2020 by an artist named Jay Gray. It’s a Chiefs anthem. It’s called our year. Hope you enjoy it.
Tom Heath
My name is Tom Heath.
Tom Heath
Have a great week, and tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.
Liana Sharp
Kansas City, baby. J. Gray on the mic. It’s about time we bring one home. Don’t you bing. Let’s do it. Our year, our squad, our team, our dream in control. I come number 15, I can look inside the mirror and I see my Archie ain’t stopping him with a cheese in that. Number 32, always in step to check. When he knows the rent due we go send the cheetah running if you try and dip number 87 catch a sneak and six two? For every time that you break us down we go build a family up? You can’t take us down? For every time that you break we go do something major? For every time that you break us down? We go build a family up? You can’t take us down? For every time that you break it we go do something major? For every time that you break us down? We go build the family up? You can’t take us down? For every time that you break it we go do something major? For every time that you break us down we go build the family up? You can’t take us down? For every time that you break we go do something major down
Liana Sharp
by kobe in the first queue leave it to my homie on the target we got andy reading plays like you guys we keep dominating so they put us on a prime time. Now it’s Super Bowl season. Everybody in the city already going and believes in life. She’s king to. Bring it home we go do it for the city for the city. We love it. For every time that you break us down we go build a family up you can’t take us down for every time that you break we go do something major to every time that you break us down we go build a family up you can’t take us down to every time that you break it we go do something major to every time that you break us down we go build a family up you can’t take us down for every time that you break it we go do something major for every time that you break us down we go build a family up you can’t take us down for every time that you break it we go do something major major.
