The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:19
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 0:47
Good morning, Las Vegas and welcome to this last Sunday in the month of May. Happy Memorial Day to many. Those of you who are celebrating everyone is celebrating in some sort of way with barbecue and family and just relaxation and cookouts Thanksgiving and memory. So thank you for waking up and starting this Sunday morning with me. I am excited to be doing another episode of the scoop here on K u and v 91.5. Jazz and more. I have a great guest today, I you should go and some of you know her some of you may not. But I am excited and delighted to introduce her. To those of you who do not end to talk about a new chapter of her life. She's always blazing trails and doing something different and giving added value to our community. So without further ado, or delay. Good morning, Aisha.

Unknown Speaker 1:35
Good morning, happy Sunday,

Unknown Speaker 1:36
happy Sunday to you thank you for being willing to come on the show and talk about what you're going what you're doing what your latest project is. So always happy to have you here. And just glad that you are my friend. And some occasions my conscience. So I just love that's funny to you. I love your voice of reason. Today, I invited you on because I wanted to talk about your new thing, which is women in the NAACP. And I wanted to talk about what that's all about, and how what your take is on the call to action for women and why we why it's important that we're engaged in how you think we should be looking at issues affecting us, our families, relationships, careers, civic engagement, all that kind of stuff. So that's what we're going to be like digging into today. So thank you for taking the time to have this conversation. So women in the NAACP, you wear a number of hats. And we could run this list down. So let's run that list down. And then we're going to like dig into women NAACP.

Unknown Speaker 2:54
Yeah. So thank you very much for having me. When is very near and dear to my heart in Nevada. But you know, women in the NAACP was established by ITV Wales, which was one of our national founding members. And in Nevada, the wind was established when the branch was established, it's just that we've been a little dormant in the last 11 years. So it's exciting to be in this time and reestablishing something that was so valuable to the NAACP as a whole.

Unknown Speaker 3:36
So that's a negative history because I was fully aware of your course I'd be well, its contribution. I think our granddaughter lived here for years. I don't know if she's still here, I had the pleasure of meeting her granddaughter once many years ago, she lived here. And she spent time on the historic west side. And I think I met her at the West Las Vegas Art Center. But not aware that this was a component of the NAACP, so to be leading the charge to rebirth it. What are you hoping to accomplish? And you know, what, what does it do? Like what? What do you do?

Unknown Speaker 4:13
So our national mission is to create leaders and with women leaders and to have a voice in leadership. So that is our national mission. And so locally, I inherit that mission along with being focused on how we show up in our reproductive health. So the ladies of when we are at women's strong, I'm so excited to even announce that we're at with a strong considering we're just in our first year, right. So we're going into our second year, and we have a monthly meeting and in our monthly meeting we have about 23 to 25 Women In the struggle for this video every month, I am. Yeah, it is because it says that these young women and mature women have found a place to be heard be seen and be a part of something right, and that has so much value. But I wouldn't say I'm the leader, I'm just the orchestrator of the movement, I often say that I'm the I'm the chair. But all of these young women and mature women are leading where we're going. And so our focus in the last year, our focus had been just to be consistent, right, just to show up and be consistent to one another, we had a lot of growing and maturing within each other, to build a strong foundation, and strong systems so that we could move up and start doing work. So we did a lot of self conversation, we would ask ourselves, the conversations of how are we showing up in our sisterhood? Right? Are we being forgiving women? How do we hold each other accountable, without causing conflict, things like that, that's what we did in our first year. And so in this year, we have our path has been written out for us. So for the first half of the year, we've had our annual drive, where we extended our membership to 80. Members, we were able to donate 693 pairs of socks to the child Haven. And we are launching a non traditional support non traditional parent support group, because what we're finding is parents need support. And there are so many non traditional parents, aunties, uncles, grandfathers, grandmothers that also need support. So we're extending our family conversation to non traditional parenting. And then we're also going to be hosting like a hygiene care. conversation. And that will be led by again, both of these are led by young ladies in the organization in the chapter, to make sure that we're having conversations about hygiene in the manner where our young women can be comfortable with their bodies and to release the shame from their bodies, and from their mind against their bodies so that they can grow up and have good bodily health, because we know that the more we're talking about our bodies, the more prone we are to identify the issue so that we are able to have good reproductive organs when we're mature. Right, so we're able to find breast cancers and and what is it called? The cancers in our reproductive area,

Unknown Speaker 8:02
right? Oh, very clear. And, and uterine cancer?

Unknown Speaker 8:06
Yeah. Yeah. And if we're not cervical cancer, we're more ashamed of our bodies, we're not identifying those issues. So that's our charge for the first six months, which is a huge charge.

Unknown Speaker 8:21
What I really like about it is what I'm hearing is that you, you took the time to establish a culture as a new because it wasn't new. But in the space of bringing something back that existed before you took the time to establish a culture of how you would function, how you would exist, and people where people would engage, and what they could expect by being a part of the organization. And I think that's great and healthy, because it allows everyone to get on the same page. So when they're out being ambassadors for women in the NAACP, they've had the time to get intervention and doctrine, indoctrinated in what the organization is, and how you function in it makes it easier to be a champion and a cheerleader for it. And I like that you did that. I'm really, I mean, and let me disclose. I am a member of women in the NAACP, I attended your recruitment drive a couple of months ago that you had in downtown Las Vegas. And I signed up and so I get phone calls, and I get emails and stuff that lets me know some of what you're doing. And I was just thinking, I wonder, you know, who does or doesn't know about this. And that was part of my reason for wanting to have you on this morning to talk about what's going on with this with this project.

Unknown Speaker 9:41
So you know what I've reservations about? Thank you very much. What I love most about when is that? I never wanted to be a part of an organization where people didn't feel seen or heard or couldn't find their own leadership styles, right? Because I believe that given the opportunity We can all be leaders. And what I love about when is everyone feels like they are a leader. If you attended, you did attend our sister event. It was our recruiting event, we call it our sister event. And what she found is, everyone felt like it was their women in the NAACP, it was their chapter, and they were the ones leading most of the conversations. And what I love is the ownership that the women in the NAACP has, that the ladies and the women feel confident enough to take their own ownership of it. That's one of the things that's what I believe will live beyond me and whoever else is the chair. Right? If

Unknown Speaker 10:48
right is that super important? It's important because I've done organizational leadership before. And it's important that the people who are part of it feel empowered, because if not, when you're no longer there, you run the risk of that organization dying. So if the person is engaged, and they feel connected to it a personal connection and commitment, then no matter who's at the helm, the organization is the body, the strength of the organization is the body of people who make it up. So you have a greater chance of it going on. And, and being there for a very long time to continue to do the work that you start to do. And that's the good thing about having everyone buy into what it is what it does, and why it is what it is. So yeah. I love that about what you're doing, to give each person who's a part of it a voice and give them a space where their ideas are heard and received, considered. And collectively, you're working to manifest whatever cultivate whatever the project is, and you guys have a lot of a lot of things on your list. So congratulations. I mean, I know I'm a member. But I'm so busy, I haven't had a chance to really dig in. So congratulations for everything that you've done and are doing so far.

Unknown Speaker 12:02
Thank you. And when you get the chance to begin, you'll just be able to fall right in and get involved. I know you're also involved in the whole lot of things. Also just wanted to point out that because we are established in leadership, one of our core is that we try to attract women that we believe can sit on governmental and jurisdictional boards. So we've built relationships with the governmental systems to be able to be a funnel of like creating leadership spaces and recruitment for the seats, because I don't know if you know, but there are the governor board just along the Governors has like 70 Something open seats, right?

Unknown Speaker 12:51
Watch them some from time to time when I used to do the Urban League young professionals, we would look at that, to try and identify people who might qualify and to get people to understand how to aim for those positions. If that was something that they were interested in, you know, how do you get that? How do you set yourself up to be ready to do that? Because it makes me want to ask you the question, because sometimes when people are aware of groups like this, they're not sure if that group is for them. And if you were saying stuff, I asked you the question, what type of woman and what they don't realize is it's open to everyone, every woman is really the type of but how would you say to someone, what type of person is the type of person who's involved with women in the NAACP,

Unknown Speaker 13:38
I would say, first person that is looking to be a leader or desires or have currently leader attributes. Because I will be honest with you, I am not a manager. I've never been able to manage. And I think that these organizations like the NAACP, they grow and function beyond the leadership that is current, because there's a bunch of leaders in these organizations, right. So first and foremost, I believe that if I could call it an avatar because that's the language we use, right? If I had the perfect win member avatar, they would be a leader, a person with good work ethic, a person who has available time to be a part of and take a part of women in the NAACP. A person who is flexible, forgiving, and most importantly, a person who and forget doubly. I need to say that different a person who unapologetically wants to make change for women and in their future. So that would be like my perfect avatar they can be from any walks of life, because it's not definitive on that person has to be a person of color. No. So original founding members of the NAACP weren't all people of color, right. So we need an ally of someone who understands and has a, an understanding of the plight of people of color. But all walks of life. And as a matter of fact, I have actively been recruiting young women that are not just black women are of black descent, because I want every woman to understand that this space has been opened to fight for what we believe is just unfair. To relate your right and leadership,

Unknown Speaker 15:58
because there's that conversation where a lot of times we do we address these issues of being taller. And the reality is that in some way, form or fashion, regardless of your background, and your walking life, women across the board are dealing with similar challenges. And if you sit down in a room and have a conversation, I don't care what color a woman is. She's dealing with a similar challenge. You're dealing with parenting issues, you're dealing with family, you're dealing with career, it is different, how it may affect you as a person of color. But there is great benefit and working together collectively to correct the things that are not well, that are not healthy for everyone. Because it can't just there's just the common ground is their reproductive rights. Issues just affect everyone. I mean, there are issues that just regardless of color, they affect you if you're pregnant, okay. So for example, if you work for a company, and you're pregnant, and pregnant, women are still walking a far distance. And I've said this before, it does matter what color you are pregnant, that walk is difficult. So asking for considerations for pregnant women is asking for considerations. It's not asking for considerations for pregnant Latina women, or African American women, or Caucasian or whatever, or Asian is just asking for considerations of women, period, because everybody is having the same struggle.

Unknown Speaker 17:24
Great. And we

Unknown Speaker 17:27
and that was a common thread. So I

Unknown Speaker 17:32
wonder if the conversations that we talked about often in our committee meetings, is, you know, to identify the places where support isn't offered. For example, we've talked about how to support for women who are infertile, right, infertility is a very difficult thing. And for some women who don't choose to have children, but just can't have children, it shows up uniquely different in their lives. And so part of the, in some of our meetings, we've had open dialogues about infertility, and how we would like to reach, you know, change the language, or change people's conversation as it relates to women who can't have children or have difficulties have children, for example, this isn't one of our last meeting, one of the young ladies identified how she would regress when people would ask her when when she had gotten to have children. She's in her 30s. And, you know, she has decided that she doesn't want to have children. But she doesn't feel like she should have to have that conversation over and over and over again. And it was very hurtful for her to dialogue with women about how hurtful that was for her. But I really appreciate creating a space where a young woman who's struggling in her everyday life felt comfortable enough amongst these women to have this conversation. I

Unknown Speaker 19:05
love that you're doing because that makes me think of like, you're at 80 members, right? Which, for us, in even though it's a year later, let's just be honest, a voluntary space where you come because you want to, to give your time to, to pay into it to extract from it, whatever you you want to call it to be at 80 people in a voluntary space. That is huge. Because people have so much going on in their lives, that the fact that you've reached this number, it says you're filling a void, there's a knee and I've long thought there's a need for conversation women. One of the reasons why I'm such a huge advocate and talk about breast cancer and we'll call anybody anytime you told me you're diagnosed and you call someone. I have called two or three different people in the last few weeks because they were diagnosed with breast cancer. And someone said Wouldn't you talk to them? Absolutely, I will talk to them. Because there's so many different aspects of what's going on within this space, which says to me, at people, there's a need and the things going on with women too often. I don't care what it is menopause, parenting changes. If we have conversations, I saw a gentleman yesterday diagnosed with prostate cancer. And he says, I travel them, I talk about it, I said, Thank you for doing that. Because when we have these conversations, we become smarter, we become stronger, we become more resilient, you need support spaces, you need a place to feel safe and comfortable. And then it becomes the village around whatever the issue is, it used to say, takes a village to raise a child. Some, it's the collective that makes a difference around a lot around these issues. So I think that the fact that you're 80 members, and you're young, that is huge, because sometimes it can take organizations a couple of years to get 100 members, but you are so close to that you've only been around for like, you know, you've only been reborn and active effectively active for about a year. So that it says there's a need for what you're doing. And it says that the model you're using is really working, because the people they are going back out. And that's where your membership grows, when people who were there start to recruit more people, because it's giving them something and they're able to have honest testimony about what being in this space feels like what is contributing to their life?

Unknown Speaker 21:47
Yeah, thank you very much. And I believe that, you know, the ladies that are in this committee, they have their that have, they have their ownership, and that's what they're receiving. Right? It's, I try not to take credit of something that isn't mine, right? Because it's not about me, and I are powerful,

Unknown Speaker 22:10
you like to do that you're one of those people who just wants to hang out in the shadows, I You should, I'm just gonna gonna call you out. Because, you know, I know you well, you love to hang out in the shadows. But you are such a powerful thinker. And anyone who knows you from Coach Canada to just everything that you've done in the cannabis space in the NAACP space, consulting space, whatever, what have you, you are one of those powerful thinkers that sees things through a different lens. And that's one of the things I love about you, you're an outside the box thinker. And you're outside the box doer. And you just see things differently. And so you mobilize people. And the other thing about it is you have a knack for simplifying a task so that you if it has phases, whatever, you break it up and compartmentalize in a way that this chunk can be bitten off, chewed and digested. Thus in the end, it's executed. And it's piece by piece by piece. And it makes it something that people can get their arms and their mind wrapped around to effectively get on board. Because a lot of times people can present you with an idea. But it seems so lofty, it seems so huge. They don't know where to begin, you have an innate ability to simplify things. And when we can simplify things, people can see the end. Yes, especially when you have a busy life, people can see the end so they can see where I can engage. Because I can do this, this will take me two or three, whatever, sessions work work sessions two or three hours, few times a meeting a month, or whatever the requirement is. It's short. And it's to the point. And I think that that's another thing that makes it great. Well, I used to do yp I used to encourage people take small project because if you take a small project, you can get that done. It's when you take something that seems like it's going to take you two or three years, that's difficult, but if we know we're going to be done with this in four to six weeks, you have a sense of of completion in four to six weeks and you feel good about that. And then you can start something else and if you can't start it maybe somebody else in the group can start the next thing and I just think you have a knack for getting people and taking things and making them digestible I think big picture so that was black.

Unknown Speaker 24:36
That's Black joy consulting does so you know, that's my business. My articulating that it is

Unknown Speaker 24:48
because you said dominance in the shadows talk about I'm not but you are so I'll stop you know you are. You are a leader that inspires the troops To want to stand with you. And that's a very unique and valuable type of leadership. You inspire and motivate others to want to stand with you. And then you remind them, and then that's when you become not the leader, you become a team member. But you're still leading, but you're inspiring them to become leaders too. And yeah, that is just a wonderful quality to have as the person who encourages and inspires others to do. How do people, I want to make sure you're welcome. And I want to make sure anyone who's interested because I don't want people to think that the only time they can become a part of this is when you have a recruitment drive. So how can some woman who's looking for sisterhood a safe space, a healthy space? Or just to get involved with something that is so organic? Yes, that it's carved out and defined by you who you are, as you are? How does that person that women get involved with this?

Unknown Speaker 26:00
Thank you. That's a great question. We it's really simple, actually, you have to become a member of the NAACP, our one a 111. And that is NAACP, las vegas.org. And they ACP, that's two A's, because you probably don't hear me saying a CP las vegas.org. And you will go to the membership button. And what happens is, you have to be a member of the NAACP to become a member of win. So you will pay your monthly, excuse me your annual membership, and then they will send you an email to play your pay your win membership. And we say that this way, because tiny obviously, we had this scenario where people just wanted to be a member of win. Based on read,

Unknown Speaker 26:53
understanding, you

Unknown Speaker 26:54
can't you can't be a member when and not a member of RAS because when it's not separate from the brain, right? That's my that's my president in my Quinton in my ear saying, When is not his own thing? I know you think it is.

Unknown Speaker 27:09
I know it was the same way, you know, to be a member of the Europa League young professionals with be a member of the Europa League. So I understand. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 27:16
It's a commitment. And what I'd like to say in my ask if bring your ideas, you know, don't come empty handed. Bring your ideas, your information, be ready to share and willing to work.

Unknown Speaker 27:33
I think it's love because you don't have to come afraid. I feel like you're creating a space where people should feel comfortable, whatever it is, just say it, whether it grabs hope someone grabs ahold of it in that moment, or they stick a pin in it and and come back to it later. I think that's the neat thing about the space that you're creating. We're getting into our last minute and a half of the show. It's always amazing how quickly time goes by when you start to really dig into a conversation and pull down the layers of the onion. But is there any any social media that people can tap into and see some of what's going on with women in the NAACP or the NAACP, in general, just to get a sense of the direction organizations taking the impact it's having in the community events that are coming up?

Unknown Speaker 28:23
Yes, so we have, we're on Instagram and Facebook at NAACP LV the National NAACP convention will be in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 11, through the 17th. And we are looking for people to come and be a part. It's an all hands on deck to great opportunity to meet people from all over the nation. So in a CP LD on all of the social media, and NAACP Las Vegas backboard.

Unknown Speaker 28:51
We're July 11, through the 17th. You said yes. All right, the NAACP national convention is coming to Las Vegas. We love to hear that they are doing business right here in our community. So we are at the end of the show. I want to thank you, Aisha for coming on to spend some time with me this morning. I want to thank everyone who is awake and tuning in. And of course if you missed the show, you can always catch it on a podcast. It's on your favorite podcast platforms. Thank you for joining me Have a great week.

Unknown Speaker 29:21
It's been fun. Thank you for having me. Have a good

Unknown Speaker 29:25
morning. You too. Bye bye. I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tony Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle TA and YAFLA na GA N You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes 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