Podcast: The Unseen Campaign with Tara King of CoHo

00:00.00

Todd
Hey, everyone welcome to the weekly podcast. Ah the Conway scene thing that we do and I told you last week that I did not want to keep doing the keep the format the way it has been I want to mix it up a little bit so that you. You guys want to listen to me ramble the whole time. So today. The first interview for the weekly podcast and I do have with me Tara King who is the see if I get it correct the community outreach director of the city of hope. Outreach welcome Tara tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do for coho and what coho is.

00:36.14
Tara King
You did great.

00:45.20
Tara King
Okay, um, well my name is Tara and um I live in Conway and I’m the community outreach director at city of hope outreach and what that is is it is a nonprofit here in Conway. Um, that works in underresourced communities. Um, we have several different programs and different resources available to help get necessary resources to people that are in need in the area we serve homeless. Peopled as well here in the community. We have several homeless individuals and we have a small garden and a nutrition program. We also have an academy for children. We just do a lot of different things right here in Conway arkansas to to serve under resource communities and the people that live here.

01:29.97
tejones
Ah, Tara do you guys still have two locations. You used to have two ash and I can’t remember the other place.

01:37.48
Tara King
So our location is um, it’s on East Robbins and that’s our that’s our 1 location now we do have our hope home which is the transitional home for men and then we’re working on hope village which is actually gonna be right in between the office building and the.

01:43.40
tejones
Robins. Yeah.

01:53.49
tejones
Yeah, yeah, so we’ll have to have you or Phil to come on talk about the hope home down the down the road but I have a specific reason for having you on today and that is the unseen campaign which takes place. Um.

01:56.30
Tara King
Hope Village. So that’s really exciting.

02:13.50
tejones
Saturday this Saturday and next Saturday now I have I told you before we got on the call that I have participated in these in the past various different things that been done over the years and it’s been a while obviously we probably weren’t even doing this for the last couple years so um this is your chance to tell us what the unseen campaign is um, you know what people can expect and a little bit about you know the howls and the the nuts and bolts of Howard the logistics I guess you might say for taking place.

02:44.62
Tara King
Yeah, so March is our unseen campaign and that’s whenever we chose to do it? Um, what it is is it raises awareness to the amount of homeless individuals in Faulkner County and it also shows appreciation to the programs here that. We have for city of hope outreach that combat homelessness. Um, so a lot of people I guess would ask why are we doing a campaign um about homelessness and homelessness. Actually, it represents a particular suffering that affects men women and children homeless .homeless can happen to anybody. Um. Right now currently in Faulkner County. We have about a thousand homeless individuals and 600 of those are children. So we want to have an opportunity for the community to become aware of this. So once they are aware of it then you know that responsibility is now onto them to be able to. Help figure out solutions or help nonprofits that are figuring out the solutions to kind of take care of the community and the people that are in it and homeless people are part of our community. So we have several different. Events for this month that we’ve planned to kind of lift community engagement and awareness but also to raise money for the 3 programs that coho has that we use for homeless individuals and that is our hope village which is being built right now that’s the 10 tiny homes. And then we have the hope home which is the transitional home for men which I just spoke about and then we have a program that’s actually homeless prevention program and it is utility assistance and rental assistance that assist people that are facing evictions. So all 3 of those things are important for us to be able to reach the people that need it in our under resource communities we serve so we have these events to raise money for that. But also to raise awareness and just get people involved and understand that. Um this isn’t just something that happens in big cities. You know Conway. Isn’t a huge city compared to you know like Dallas Texas or something like that. But we still have just we have a bad homeless problem here.

04:53.30
tejones
Yeah, um, I’ve been here 12 years, and somewhere along the way I met Phil and learned about what city of hope outreach does and tried to participate as much as I could and in different events now there’s interesting because you mentioned daas. When I moved here I came here from fort where Texas which is just to the west of Dallas little waste not near as big as Dallas but it’s still pretty big city nonetheless and one of the things I learned before I actually moved which is kind of kind of astounded me was that there was.

05:29.76
tejones
At least 1 there might have been more than one people on staff at fort worth isd independent school district who whose role was to facilitate with the children who were in homeless households.

05:45.96
Tara King
Yep.

05:46.20
tejones
I was like I’d never heard of that before it was just astounded me that that that position existed and began to you know, make me aware you know obviously some of the people who get caught up in the situation that really are pretty innocent. You know when you talk about children and.

06:02.87
Tara King
Absolutely.

06:06.20
tejones
So and I know we have a number of organizations that work with the children and we talked about the children’s advocacy alliance before we got on. You know there, there’s a number of different organizations in town and but but the children who are in in a homeless household is a really unique situation. Children. So so the first event is this Saturday and this is the flin raise yeah weather penning I don’t think it’ll be too bad. It might be a little cold but ah.

06:28.20
Tara King
Yes, weather pending guy.

06:37.70
Tara King
That’ll be good for the immersive part of the experience.

06:40.28
tejones
Yeah, oh so is there immerse immersive experience going on this weekend too. Okay.

06:42.82
Tara King
Yes, so the immersive experience is the fundraiser. We’re actually going to be panhandling. Basically we’re calling it a street fundraiser but we’re meeting up on the corner of oak street and Hark Ridder on that intersection and we have flyers that we’ve designed that qr codes on them.

06:51.86
tejones
Right? You know, ah that.

07:02.48
Tara King
And we’re gonna be handing those out to cars that are driving through and then also the actual panhandling experience is the immersive part of it because yeah, the weather’s gonna be a little bit cold. So I encourage people to dress warm but homeless people will stand out on the street and you know for just a fistful of dollars and um.

07:10.82
tejones
Unit.

07:21.97
Tara King
Want to see want to see what happens whenever we get a group of people together to experience that for for a good cause to raise money for but also to understand that. Um you’re out here for Hours. You know, shaking your cup and asking. Donations and stuff and and you’re probably only going to get petty cash and that’s okay, people will donate and I’m excited for them to be a part of that experience but we also have cashless options too because I know that this is predominantly a cashless Society. So if they don’t have any coins on them or any dollar bills on them then they will definitely have other ways to go home and and donate later if they want to be a part of it.

07:55.17
tejones
Yeah, and we’ll get to that just a minute I Know you’ve got a place on the website to actually do the donation So people who are participating will be holding I guess Buckets or something and.

08:06.12
Tara King
So we just decided today that it’s not buckets. It’s actually going to be empty think coffee cups since they’re stuck board. They’re sponsoring our event the fundraiser. So we’re gonna have think coffee cups that we’re gonna be asking people to put change in.

08:11.83
tejones
Okay, right.

08:21.60
tejones
Okay, and that’s from 9 to 2 I am thinking somewhere along the way and I noticed and I think in the past some college students have participated in this in the past.

08:24.83
Tara King
Yes, on Saturday.

08:37.45
tejones
Is that happening this time too. You’re gonna have some college students participating.

08:39.70
Tara King
Yes, so actually our fundraiser is on the same day as UCA’s big event and that’s where the UCA kids sign up for jobs in the communities and then they get put in different places to do a day of serving. Basically, we have about 15 volunteers that have signed up to.

08:44.29
tejones
Ah, yeah, yeah.

08:57.27
Tara King
Participate in the fundraiser as their big event but also as ah as volunteering for the community. So I’m super excited about that.

09:03.95
tejones
And people who actually want to participate they can meet at the was the fountain or no, it’s ah oak & harkrider at 9 am right.

09:13.39
Tara King
Yes, and we also have a Facebook event available that they can RsVPTwo so it shows the location and everything it’s actually going to be in between the Zeteo coffee and that parking lot right? there across from Walgreens.

09:22.40
tejones
Gotcha right? right? Very familiar with the intersection and I go to the Walgreens a lot for stacks and stuff because my office is Downtown. So and so. Now is that the only thing going on this weekend.

09:39.35
Tara King
Yet, that’s for this weekend then next weekend on the nineteenth is when we’re doing the March and that will be at the water fountain.

09:46.40
tejones
Okay, that’s at 11 a m now let’s talk about that that’s on March the nineteenth we’re going to meet at the water fountain where the where the big Christmas tree is during the holidays right across from the Zeteo coffee at 11 am and you’re going to March to what the courthouse or.

09:52.51
Tara King
E.

10:02.70
Tara King
No, we’re actually going to first. We’re gonna gather and we’re gonna talk a little bit about what unseen is and why we’re doing this and then we’re gonna walk down the oak street sidewalks to the intersection and line up down that sidewalk with our signs.

10:03.74
tejones
Younna March to.

10:11.72
tejones
And so you’re not going very far.

10:19.59
Tara King
No, this is more of the demonstration part of that like the awareness part part of of ah unseen we just kind of want to raise awareness. We’ve made several different signs that have statistics on them and that the kids from Academy have participated in and we just.

10:31.88
tejones
Ah.

10:38.24
Tara King
Want to raise awareness along with the banner that we have we have 2 banners that are posted on the arch of conway right there in downtown and so we’ve been encouraging people to also head over there and take a picture or a selfie and tag coho and hope village in it and then at the end of the month

10:50.95
tejones
Prior.

10:56.74
Tara King
Um, Dr Fletcher is going to pick somebody to give $50 to

10:59.57
tejones
Okay, wow $50 that’s a little bit of incentive to participate. Ah I suppose um, so are there any other events for the month of March or or these I notice that you.

11:06.41
Tara King
Yeah.

11:16.43
tejones
And know on the first you kicked off the think Coffee Donation Punch card I actually have one of those is that last the whole month is that right? So we could.

11:20.30
Tara King
Yes, it does it lasts until the end of March yeah, ah, we’re actually gonna be handing out those punch cards the day of the fundraiser to so what we’re doing is we’re partnered oh sorry, go ahead.

11:30.72
tejones
Okay, now I will um I was I had seen it on Facebook and then I went in last Saturday I think it was last Saturday and went in to think and I knew about. Thing and I got the punch card cause I made a donation I don’t know if I’ll ever get you know to sometimes that stuff is sporadic for me I go to every coffee shop. Anybody that knows me to know you know. In fact, I went to the newest coffee shop earlier this week which is Demure. It’s a coffee truck actually.

11:55.86
Tara King
Now.

12:06.16
tejones
Um, so you know and I’ve been round mountain this week but you know we’ll make my way to blue cell and I make my way to the tail and think and I love John and I love what they’re doing down at think and I’m I’m delighted. They participated with you on this but I handed in my donation and she gave me a punch card. So. I guess I have to the end of the month to keep to donate could donate again and get another punch is that correct.

12:31.45
Tara King
Yes, so the way the punch cards work are from March First all the way to the end of March we’re sponsored with them through the punch cards and hope village they’ve chosen hope village to be their month or what is it Saturday a month donator. Yes, so.

12:40.60
tejones
1 F. Yeah, yeah, giving their day of giving or something like that. Yeah yeah.

12:50.47
Tara King
Yes, where they’re giving back. Um, and so what we have are the punch cards have 5 different punches on them and it’s actually stamps. Um, so you go in and you make a minimum donation of ¢50 when you buy your coffee and you get the punch card.

12:56.32
tejones
Ah, yeah. Right.

13:05.50
Tara King
Then you go back and every time you buy your coffee you go ahead and you get the punt you go ahead and you get the stamp and at the end whenever you turn that stamp in you get a free coffee and they will donate $5 to unseen campaign. So every card that gets filled up with 5 stamps and then returned.

13:05.52
tejones
Yeah, yeah.

13:21.96
Tara King
Will be a $5 damnation donation to coho in the unseen campaign and feel it.

13:24.68
tejones
So a minimum donation amount to get a stamp is ¢50 and you need to do 5 of them so that’s approximately $2 of ¢50 which is approximately the cost of a cup of coffee at think. So it’s really not too much to do. You can just round up your.

13:37.82
Tara King
Yep.

13:43.84
tejones
You’re whatever you buy when you go in there. It’s a really cool idea like I said I got my punch card and I may just have to go in a few more times to see if I can get that thing full and I did and I didn’t know that they were donating five bucks for each one of those cars too. So that’s ah, that’s an awesome gesture by ah.

14:02.64
tejones
By John and the crew I think.

14:03.40
Tara King
Oh yeah, we’re so appreciative of them and the baristas getting the information out. They’ve been really great about letting people know that we’re doing this for this month and that it’s something that could easily be a way that you get involved and and help out because I know.

14:07.43
tejones
Now.

14:19.43
Tara King
You know, not everybody’s gonna be able to come out on Saturday and not everybody’s gonna be able to March and but this is a way where everyone can participate that drinks coffee.

14:26.60
tejones
Yeah, well in tea as well I think they have tea there. Um, if you don’t have coffee if you don’t like coffee I think they have tea as well. Um I was going to ask something and I’ve already lost my train of thought on that. But I guess ah but wasn’t that important. Um.

14:30.37
Tara King
Are you.

14:45.84
tejones
But that is a great way to be involved if you’re not able to make it to either of the in-person events now I’m on your website conwayunseen.weebly dot com and we will put that in the show notes as Well. So people will be able to Navigate. You have a donate page somewhere is that under I’m looking for is um, okay so is that more for businesses or just anybody.

15:06.15
Tara King
We do. We have a way to donate but we also have a sponsor page where you can become a sponsor.

15:16.84
Tara King
It could be individuals or it could be businesses or it could be organizations so anyone that wants to become a sponsor. We have 3 different tier levels of sponsorship. The bronze silver and golden and with every tier that you donate to there’s a thing underneath that says what we’ll do for you.

15:20.36
tejones
Okay.

15:33.81
tejones
Yeah I saw that as well. No, I remember now what my question was think has multiple locations 2 in Conway 1 green bar one Vilonia am I right? to assume that even the green bar and bologna locations will have the punch card as well.

15:36.62
Tara King
So.

15:49.54
Tara King
Yes, it’s all locations.

15:53.00
tejones
Okay, yeah, and then they have the uca location as well. So that they they’ve got like 5 or 6 locations now. So so it’s good to know they’re gonna have the punch cards at every location on the unseen website again I will put that in the show notes on the homepage. The logo is at the top and below. It is a banner. And it says donate now. So that’s where you can actually go and donate online if you you know if you don’t do the think coffee if you don’t go to the either of the 2 events and you want to you still want to follow through and donate just go to the website on ah their website. Ah http://comwayunseenweebly.com and on the home page. There’s a banner and a yellow button says donate now. So can’t miss. It.

16:33.96
Tara King
Yes, there’s also a faster way to get to it too For those that are already familiar with Coho Fifty Eight dot Org You just slash unseen and it’ll take you directly there that we eat.

16:44.53
tejones
Ah, okay, yeah, multiple ways multiple ways to get there I’m sure and I know you have the links also on the on your social media channels as well.

16:51.42
Tara King
Is in.

16:57.70
Tara King
Yes, we do. We’ve been. We’ve been very busy pushing it out there and getting everybody involved and posting it on all of our platforms to let everyone know and it’s paying off I’m seeing people that are posting pictures. With their think coffees and and tagging city of hope and it just it just feels really good to do something like that and see it succeeding and that really goes out to to Abby who put together the the fundraiser and punch card idea. She’s amazing.

17:22.43
tejones
Um, so what social media channels are people doing that on Facebook Instagram or okay I don’t do the Tiktok but I’m sure somebody can come up with a really cool dance.

17:28.58
Tara King
Facebook Instagram and we have a tick talk.

17:40.82
tejones
And put that up So very good. What do you want people to know about this campaign as we close down this particular episode.

17:50.59
Tara King
I Just I want people to ah, be aware that the reason why the campaign is called Unseen Campaign is because a lot of times the homeless are considered Unseen they’re they’re pushed out. From places where they’re usually visible and into tents and into woods and into places that are less visible because out of sight out of mind right? but I want them to realize that just because they’re not visible. Um, they’re still there and I want to also I want to also talk about a lot of the misconceptions about.

18:12.60
tejones
No yeah.

18:24.62
Tara King
Homelessness and why a person becomes homeless. There’s a lot of misconceptions out there that people are homeless and and there’s easy fixes to it but but there’s not and then whenever you bring in the fact that there’s 600 children that are homeless. Well those misconceptions just don’t follow through whenever it comes to innocent kids so we have.

18:30.58
tejones
And.

18:43.86
Tara King
Ah, responsibility to take care of our community members and these are different ways that they can get involved and even after unseen campaign ends what we’re doing with city of hope outreach won’t stop so they can get involved. They can learn more about it. They can become volunteers at Coho for the different events that we have coming up and they can.

18:53.58
tejones
Yeah, yeah.

19:04.00
Tara King
Firsthand the community that we serve and become a part of it and it will definitely change your life I can tell you that.

19:09.94
tejones
If if you do decide to join up with a city of hope outreach and volunteer and so forth you will meet people that will shatter your perception. Um, and you will make friends so I’ve been to the hope home I’m actually. Been to the men’s home that that Tara talked about I have met people who live there. So yeah, and then the academy does a lot for the kids. Some of the things that I see Dr Fletcher do with with the kids is is inspiring. So. Tara thanks for coming on and talking about the unseen campaign and like I said before we may have you back to talk about the hope home in the in the near future hope village yeah I’m sorry hope village.

19:58.58
Tara King
Oh yes, hope Village No, you’re good I Appreciate you inviting me on here to and this is I’ve never actually well I have done a couple podcasts but it’s been a long time so of his thought. Yeah.

20:12.10
tejones
Well I know you’ve done podcast cause I’ve actually watched you do podcasts before live. So I know that you have a little bit of experience. But it’s just like sitting around and talking to someone and it depends on how the podcast host does it. But we’re thrilled to have you on today and appreciate you helping.

20:17.00
Tara King
Yeah.

20:31.64
tejones
Ah, get the word out and coming on and talking about the unseen campaign The homeless issue is something that is that I think about and advocate for as well. So thanks for coming on.

20:42.49
Tara King
Absolutely thanks for having me.