The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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Unknown Speaker 0:26
Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan. I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

Unknown Speaker 0:53
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of the scoop. I'm so excited to join you once again on a Sunday morning to have a great conversation. Today I'm excited about my guest as well. Her name is Christina Boone and welcoming her she is the founder and executive director of tulips and we're going to tell you what tulip stands for, very shortly. But just a little more intro on what we're talking about today. As I sit around from time to time pondering different things, haven't been a young girl at one point myself, I was thinking about the importance of pouring back into girls at an early age and preparing them for life as adult women. And as I recently last week sat in on a program for kids over at the West Las Vegas, Las Vegas, West Las Vegas Library theatre Art Center. I thought how important it is to give young girls time. The stellar musical awards were here last week and they did a special program at the Art Center where a major choreographer who works with Hollywood stars came in and taught the kids a dance routine. And Pastor Mike Jr, who's a major gospel recording artist spent some time talking to them about choices and consequences. And even though we had some young men in the audience that really resonated with me, as a girl, as a woman, how important it is that we continue to give back to cultivate and to share what we learn and how we evolve as women, with our children to make sure they're strong and they're resilient and they are prepared. So today I am very delighted to welcome to the conversation here on the scoop. Cassina boom. Again, she's the founder and executive director of tulips. Good morning, Christina. Thanks for being with me. How are you?

Unknown Speaker 2:42
Good morning. How are you doing?

Unknown Speaker 2:44
I'm well thank you for asking. I'm so glad you could wake up and spend some time with me this morning, grab a cup of coffee and sit down and relax and let's chat.

Unknown Speaker 2:55
Awesome this this morning reminds me of one of the quotes that I tell the girls in that school like the sun rises every day every morning to be at the partner cheek.

Unknown Speaker 3:08
I like that I like that a Tom said to me one more time. Let me catch it one more time.

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Bloom like the sun rises every morning to dance upon your cheek. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 3:18
I love that. That's beautiful. That is beautiful. Tulips to you li PS like the flower that blooms is just right in line with what you just said. But to love stands for what?

Unknown Speaker 3:33
Teaching a uniting ladies to inspire pattern of success.

Unknown Speaker 3:36
So tell us as a nonprofit that you started what how long has it been in place here in the Las Vegas community?

Unknown Speaker 3:45
Since 2011, wow,

Unknown Speaker 3:47
that is longer than I think I even realized what inspired you to create this tool for families and for girls.

Unknown Speaker 3:59
So you know, it goes back to me as a young girl growing up in Las Vegas and having lost my mom at the age of 14 and just trying to navigate what becoming a young woman and during that time look like in our community. And so you know, I was blessed to have some amazing women in my life. However at times I felt lost. I felt like you know, there was a lot happening around me. But I always could tap into you know, the lessons that my mom gave me and my sisters coming up and then as I began to think about what those lessons were that were instilled in me I started to think about the flower the tulips flower a lot of people don't know that the tulips flower is nice see, it's a bulb and in my you know I feel like that The closest the tools closest to a woman's body because everything all the greatness is encased in this one thing is bold. And no matter where you place it, this vote is not like seeds that can be blown away in the different climates and the different weather, the greatness that my mom instilled in me, is just like that to evolve. And so that's what I think about when I started this.

Unknown Speaker 5:29
I love all of that, um, the tulip is actually my favorite flower. Here's the people love Rose. It's what I really think tulips are beautiful, just the the variety of colors and the delicateness of them, but yet, they're just gorgeous to me. And I've always liked tulips. And it's interesting that you said when you were 14, you lost your mom. And I didn't know we had some similarities in Australia, I didn't lose my mom at 14. But when I was 14, my mom developed her battle with cancer, she ended up passing away from breast cancer years later, but she developed breast cancer. But she never told anyone about that. Until I didn't find out until my mother passed and the death certificate came home. And it said, you know, it shows the date of years between the inception of disease and the actual death. And so looking at it, I was 14 When my mom started battling breast cancer. And so it's always resonated with me, oh my gosh, what would I have done? If I lost my mom when I was, you know, starting out in high school? Because she would always say the simplest thing I would say, Mom, don't you want to travel? Don't you want to see things? Don't you want to go places? And she would say, No, I just want to spend time with my family. I just want to see my children grow. But you know, coming into career in my early 20s, my mother passed away when I was 29. And so just getting into the career space. What would life had been like if high school and college in those years, your journey your story have been without my mom and blessed to have had her to 29 but even then my aunt said to me one time, no amount of time with your mom is enough time. But you really just made me process. The common net similarities that we have in in that space. And you're right. I think it because I've haven't had the conversation. Women Grow up, we get to about 25 or 30, right. And people think, Oh, you're grown. So you are an adult. So they see an adult, you're working, you've gone to college, you have your degree or you've gone to some program, you've done a certification or whatever you're doing. But in reality, there's so many more corners to turn so many more streets to travel down, you're not familiar with you don't know how to navigate this space, and where is the help. But going back to our young girls, the world is so much faster than it was when I was growing up. I think so much more is needed.

Unknown Speaker 8:09
Absolutely. One of the things I'm often you know, because of the spaces that I working in, you know, in my professional life and my community life, I get to watch every aspect of a young woman become who she is. And vice versa, the girls that I have the opportunity to, to to share space with, they get to see every aspect of a woman with the knee and also the women that I bring into our space. And so, you know, stepping back and looking through our lens is one thing but really putting on their lenses is a whole nother because it will definitely help you heal. We are so quick to say you know back in my day back in and to me it was just like you said having your mom there she it was business as usual. She was loving on you, despite what it looked like for her. She was still pouring into you taking from her the energy and all the things that she needed to possibly to help really strong she was giving it to you. And in today's society kind of we are fighting a system that you and I didn't have to go through, you know, social media was the closest thing we had to social media was a slam book. Right. You know, and I don't know if you remember plan books,

Unknown Speaker 9:50
I really don't even remember that. But you know, you're right. I think one of the summer programs that the kids at the Art Center did talked about social media the power of influence is the desire to have likes and you know, people heart your stuff on Instagram and like it on Facebook and the pressure to be impressive the influencer space, right. And so the scrutiny, I mean, we have scrutiny growing up as kids, but I have gone and talked to youth groups before and I agree with you one or 2%. It's night and day from when I was growing up, you know, I felt like my life was very sheltered. My parents did a yeoman's job of allowing me to be a kid while I was a kid. And two, I think at that point, society was so different in terms of what was in our faces TV was just you could, I hate to say it, but you almost can't really let a TV to some degree, babysit your child, because the shows were so wholesome and so simple. And they were all about family values, and making smart positive choices, and staying out of trouble. But nowadays, TV media is so adult, and it's so since so saturated with violence and sexuality and all these other different things. You can't anymore, you you have to absolutely know what is before your child. And how would that affect

Unknown Speaker 11:13
you. One thing that I want to point out that social media has done for our girls. What I've noticed over the past year, the goals and aspirations that the girls have are totally different from what you and I, and even the girls from from five in six years ago, have go back?

Unknown Speaker 11:38
What are you? What are you seeing?

Unknown Speaker 11:41
So I'm going to tell you so this summer, I've been doing a leadership camp every year, this is our second time doing our pillars of empowerment leadership camp. And so when I'm talking to the girls, and just trying to get a general understanding of who they are, what their goals and aspirations for life are, and you say, what do you want to be? And it's okay, if you don't know right now, because I'm getting ready to be 50 years old, I'm still trying to figure it out. Right? But what does it look like when you see yourself? What does it look like? And I want you to know that this the the conversations are, I want to do care. That's right. And there's nothing wrong, I want to do hair, and I want to do nails, and makeup. And there's nothing wrong with any of those fields. But, but it's so alarming as to how many of them that that all they see themselves doing is hair and nails, and makeup. And so I ended up and have a conversation with them because I want him to know, I have a good friend of mine. My name is Denise Dixon, and she owns the cosmetology Institute in Las Vegas. And I love the fact that she's such a badass, she started off doing here. I know didn't school at all. Like there are so many different things set in her journey. It wasn't just I'm going to do hair. Does that make sense? Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 13:17
And I know Denise, I had the pleasure of meeting her and I am. That's exciting. Congratulations to her kudos to her. Because I remember when she was a stylist. And this was a dream. And now it's a reality for her. And my niece, a niece who went through that phase were coming through high school, her whole thing was, I want to do I want she wanted to do makeup. She wanted to do nails and possibly hair. So she went to cosmetology school. And what I tried to say to her was, I'm not knocking it, I think it's great. I love my hairdresser. I love making myself feel pretty and doing the things that I need to do is part of self care, and it's healthy. But I want to make sure you have options because the difficulties and understanding to operate like a business operator, but just You're so young, what else do you think you might want to do? And she got into it. And ultimately, she didn't like it. So she's now gone around the mountain, the mulberry bush back and forth, because this thing she was so focused on is no longer a passion for her. She's gravitated toward nails She seems to like that the most. But I completely know what you mean, because it was very hard to get her to think about taking college seriously at the time. So we supported the cosmetology school pursuit. And then when she finished, she wasn't as interested in it. But the time had passed and she couldn't get it back. So it's a really interesting space and time that you have for this conversation about life and choices and setting the stage for options. And I think that's where programs like tulips comes in to talk to girls. About life being a stage and setting your course so that you have options. And I want

Unknown Speaker 15:07
to say this, to that point. It's one thing about just like, there's a science behind it, this is what I was telling the girls like you, this is a thing that you want to do. If not just about doing hair, learning the science and the business side, you know, the stem behind it, you know, you might be the next madam CJ Walker that can come up with something that can, you know, be you know, so to help somebody like me that does not who have these zombie edges, edges, this will not lay okay. You might be that person, because you have such a skill set like but if everyone is in this is what I was trying to explain to the girls about how 10 to 15 years ago, you talk to a young boy of color, you asked them what they wanted to do their goals was either rapping or playing a sport. That's all they could see themselves doing. Right? Right. So now we and I say if everyone in this group wants to be wants to do hair, have you research the programs that are out there? And oh, no, I watched you two videos I learned again, that's great. But the science behind it, there's so much the stem behind it, it's really stem what you're doing, to take something and make this masterpiece out using chemicals and all these things. You know, it's you got to know the math part of it. And so when I break it down to the girls, they're like, I never thought about it that way. You know, and now, having the action like you were talking about to going around and trying to figure it out, I want you to know right now that I tell young people, any young person that I I work with, I said that there are choices that you're going to make that are just a part of life. There are choices that you make that will get you life in there are choices that will take your

Unknown Speaker 17:14
life, right I tell kids all the time, the choices, great consequences.

Unknown Speaker 17:20
There's a choice. So you want to be seen on the center stage of whatever you decide to do. I'm here for it. Because I in my role as Christina doubloon. As a mentor, I want you to know that it's nothing like having a front row seat, the greatest, absolutely be able to watch a young person to become this thing that everyone thought that they were not going to be. That's my story. And so when I am in these spaces, and I have, I mean some young women to be able to tell them, hey, I don't know I'm not a doctor. But guess what I'm gonna go and find a doctor, if you want to be adopted. You have you want to be a lawyer, if you want to be all of these things, business owner tools is going to pair you find someone that can come in and pour into you to help you be this thing because I cannot just because I plant the boat does not mean that unnecessarily your mom and provide you and adults in your life have provided you with all of the greatness that's in there. They just trusted me to be a gardener and placed you in a place where other people can come and cultivate you.

Unknown Speaker 18:32
So let's talk about tubes, the tubes. She said you started in 2011. What kind of you talk about careers, you talk about leadership? Is it a course that girls sign up to sign up for for a period of time? Is it four weeks? Five weeks? How long does it last? Where do you do it? How does it work just a little bit more on like the nuts and bolts of how someone gets into to Lipson Where are you recruiting that type of thing.

Unknown Speaker 18:57
So we are located in North Las Vegas, that pie place, you know some women Tyrone Thompson, pricing and passing he had worked with myself and several other nonprofits to create a hub where young people could come and be arranged in a in enriched in a safe environment. And so we have and with tools, we have what's called petals of empowerment, where we focus on health and wellness, leadership, empowerment, equity, college and career and community and financial literacy, and finance, Tim, but what happens is if you if this is something that you want to like sign up for your mom or anyone who wants to start a young person or you go on the website, you sign up and we're all here we're not a program that stops. We're all year and then we follow our our mentees in themselves become mentors and we did watch last year a program called Buttercup in me and that program is geared towards You know, the young, all the young moms who are now started out with us in 2011. And, you know, some of them are now you know, young moms. So Buttercup in me is a is a group of young moms, where they come together, and they have created their own safe space to just be moms to learn from one another. And they focus on, you know, healthy health and wellness. Three, by three, advocacy, they have, you know, moments where they come in, you know, get on film together and talk about being there dealing with, you know, just creating that space for them to be seen and heard. And, you know, when you're a young mom, it's really hard, you know, but to have a group of young women who look like you, who you can get on the telephone, you want to talk about, you know, your child's father, you know, if you need guidance, you might like, it's like a whole thing, you want to talk about the support system, or lack set up, like, it's a great place for our butter company, moms. And we have our Collegiate part where those girls who are in college, they, themselves are in another cohort, where they can talk about, you know, the things that they're experiencing, as, you know, college women, you know, undergraduate women, you know, they can talk about that, and we have, you know, women who are in their master's program, who oversee that piece, and they can just all talk and then we have, you know, like, there's, there's so many different initiatives, like we have our squad goes to the polls, and that's helping, you know, our girls understand the importance of civic engagement and noise, about how government works. And then our switching the coat, restorative justice, for girls of color, we have a, you know, what's called the San Diego Sister Circle, once a month, well, women and young girls who come and share a space and just about what it's like to be a young grown color. So in all of our programs are

Unknown Speaker 22:02
free. So you have covered the full range of ages. How young do you go? How old is it? And then I guess I'm also wondering, cuz I'm seeing a space where they're like, a, an adult Women's Council. So

Unknown Speaker 22:17
yes, no, so and the reason why that gets kind of difficult, because there's so many different programs that are out there for women, right. And so what we do is once our girls, you know, get to that age, where they're gonna always be a part of tulips. But like I said, there's gonna come a point where, like, our girls are now they're now mentors, you know, the ones that started out with me in 2011, there now mentors within the organization. But again, I want to talk about somebody, you know, you and I, we made our connection to the Y team, right.

Unknown Speaker 22:54
So for the let me let me interject there that for those who don't know what the y peas are, the Urban League, young professionals, National Urban League, young professionals, which is a huge mentoring group nationwide, which has about 15 to 20,000, African American professionals between age of 21 and 40. Now that gets maybe 45, who do targeted civic engagement work in the communities where they live, and where there are Urban League affiliates. So yes, we made our connection in the Urban League space. And that's why I've given back as part of why giving back is so near and dear to my heart. But back to what you were saying about connecting with the mentees and mentors. And please don't forget to tell us how young the girls are when they start because I'm super curious about where you guys start.

Unknown Speaker 23:47
So they start with us in the fifth grade, we do have some fourth graders, so age by nine and 10. And the girls, like I said, the girls, we have a saying leaders, no other leaders and they have a pledge that leadership, play, they all take the leadership pledge. And it's all about being leaders within your community, you know, taking you know, showing them what leadership looks like and in house and then an athlete meal, external, right. And, you know, when the girls who are collegiate age they graduate and they become professionals, we then give them a list of, you know, organization, women organizations that they can connect with so they can build, start to build that connection resume, you know,

Unknown Speaker 24:41
because you're taking people from the beginning to the end you're holding hands, you're pouring into you're nurturing you're building relationships and friendships. I know we've been talking for a while and so I want to make sure people out there know how to get more information and to get in touch with the program. So share website for own social media, whatever the best way is to, to get connected with tulips to talk to someone. What do you know? How do we do that? How do people do that?

Unknown Speaker 25:11
Sure. Our website is www. My tulips daughter.org and we are on Instagram, tick tock, Facebook's you name it, we're on it. So the girls have been teasing because, you know, I'm still trying to figure this whole tick tock live out. But our Instagram is my two limbs in v. And then our Facebook is this two lips on Facebook, all capital letters. And then we have tic tock which is my tools LV four. And so we have a great we have a great network of young people that we get to work with in Congress that have a front row seat to greatness and then the fact that we have a butter cup in me program like we had a huge success. I just have to give a huge shout out to one of our but a couple of new mom heaven. Flowers just graduated in February with her nursing degree with six children under the age of seven. And she to this he just graduated from Roseman. And she's working as a nurse, you know, so with that network of young women, you know, hey, can you watch my kids while I go to school? Can you watch my I just need a moment. And all of the moms are CPR certified all the moms who offer parenting classes and no faces, the moms can, you know, you can feel comfortable leaving your child was another mom. And

Unknown Speaker 26:51
really having story is really what it's all about. Because a lot of times we'll see a young lady in a situation like that with multiple kids. And automatically you become a statistic. But instead of being a statistic, she is the, you know, exception to the rule, if you will, maybe the anomaly but mostly because I'm primarily because tulips was a program like tulips, and in her case to loose with Buttercup in me, was there to pour into her to hold on it and to give her some support and hope. And I think a lot of times what people need is just a little bit of help finding direction, because if you have the passion and the drive within you to keep trying and keep pushing with resources, you can, you know, get to the finish line. So I

Unknown Speaker 27:33
met her when I met her when I was he was in attendance in the 11th grade. And she was one of my students at Legacy High School. And just, and she even before she had kids, you know, because you know, two of the two year old twins are hurting biologically, but she's engaged with someone that has children that they actually are raising this family. One of the things that she learned going back to the network pins when she was in college, she was having some challenges at one of the schools that she was attending colleges here. And because of that network that she got from being a part of tulips and going apart being a part of the different things outside, she was able to learn how to advocate for herself, was one of in an assault somebody, she contacted someone that we that she had met from being in an event with to look.

Unknown Speaker 28:30
And I think I think her story is great, unfortunately, I mean, we're running at up. It's amazing how much time flies, but we are epic, at the end of the time we have this morning to talk about this. But I want to thank you for coming on to shine the light on the value of mentoring girls in the community. But I'm so excited to learn that it's not just girls, it's the community as a whole across multiple generations. And it allows everyone to have a chance to for you guys to reach back. And then for them for those who are given that opportunity to turn around and pour into others. So Cassina I want to say thank you for coming on the scoop with me to talk about tulips. Again, your website is my tulips.org and you were on all the social media platforms. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. And thank you for taking some time out to join me this morning. And I want to say thank you to the listening audience. I hope this information has been informative and helpful.

Unknown Speaker 29:29
Thank you so much. You have a wonderful Sunday and thank you

Unknown Speaker 29:37
I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tanya Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle TA in YAFLA na GA and you can also find me on Instagram at Tanya Ahmed is Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and Have a great week

Transcribed by https://otter.ai