Across Pima County, the Family Support Alliance is bringing organizations together to help families with young children access the services, education, and resources they need to thrive. With funding made possible through First Things First, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona serves as the backbone agency and administrative home for this collaborative network of nonprofits, school district-based programs, government agencies, and community partners.
Since 2009, the Family Support Alliance has worked to build a coordinated system of support for families with young and school-aged children. Today, the alliance includes more than 40 individuals representing over 20 organizations and agencies, all working toward one shared mission: uniting quality services that strengthen families with young children.
Meet Cholpon and Dawn, two members of the United Way team helping lead this work behind the scenes. Through relationship-building, resource coordination, direct family support, and collaboration with community partners, they help ensure families can connect with the services they need to become stronger, healthier, and more resilient.
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Building stronger families through collaboration
For Cholpon, the work is rooted in relationships, trust, and a deep commitment to the Tucson community.
Tell us a little about yourself and your role at United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. What do you most love about Tucson?
I came to United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona as a temp 14 years ago and quickly fell in love with the mission of this organization and the work that was being done in our community.
Over the years, I transitioned into my current role in the Family Support Alliance and now oversee the important work our partners are doing to lift families out of poverty, help them overcome generational trauma, and make them stronger.
I love the strong sense of community in Tucson and collaborating with amazing, passionate people in our partner organizations who work so hard to support families with young children through all kinds of challenges. They inspire me every day.
For those who may not be familiar, what is the Family Support Alliance, and what role does United Way play in bringing so many organizations together?
The Family Support Alliance is a collaboration of nonprofit organizations, school districts, government agencies, and individuals working together to provide services, support, and resources for families with young and school-aged children.
With United Way serving as its backbone agency, this collaboration was established in 2009 and has continued to grow and evolve in response to the economic, financial, and societal challenges facing our community.
United Way keeps Family Support Alliance partners focused on providing services in a coordinated and collaborative way. We help reduce competition, encourage organizations to approach goals and tasks together, and make sure each partner agency receives the individualized support it needs to be successful.
Why is collaboration so important when it comes to supporting children and families?
When different community partners join forces to accomplish the same goal, their work is more effective and impactful. United Way is the glue that keeps the Family Support Alliance together and makes it such a unique collaboration.
We have a long history together, along with trust and strong relationships. Those connections have helped us overcome and continue working through major challenges, including reduced or eliminated funding, supporting vulnerable families during the pandemic, addressing food insecurity, and responding to the substance use epidemic in our community.
This important family support work happens throughout the state, but I believe it is especially impactful and collaborative in our community because of United Way and our efforts to support our partner agencies.
Creating life-changing connections
For Dawn, one of the biggest strengths of the Family Support Alliance is the way partners share information and work together to meet each family’s unique needs.
Every family has a different story. What are some of the biggest impacts you’ve seen because organizations are working together through the Family Support Alliance?
Our partners work together to ensure the families get what they need through shared knowledge about community resources. Every month we have a Family Support Alliance meeting, learning about current and new resources that are available.
We’ve worked with Geico and have gotten “new to them” cars for working low-income families actively engaged in our home visitation programs. Imagine how much “easier” day-to-day tasks/errands/getting to work are with your own car, it’s life changing.
What is something people might not realize about the work United Way does behind the scenes to help partner organizations and families succeed?
Both Cholpon and I are certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians, so we are able to teach the families that are actively involved in our home visitation programs the proper and safe way to install car seats. If we find the family’s car seat is expired, is on the recall list, has been in an accident, or if they got their car seat second hand and don’t know the car seat’s history, we can help get that seat replaced.
We can help actively involved home visiting families with emergency groceries or safety items. We also run a referral program where people in the community can self-refer to us through the PCPC (Pima County Parenting Coalition) website if they are looking for support, services, or community resources. Even though we specialize in prenatal through 5-years-old, we will do our best to find resources for families that do not fall into that category.
If someone is considering supporting United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, what would you want them to know about the difference their generosity makes for families?
Due to rising costs, increased inflation, and new regulations to AHCCCS, SNAP, and WIC our families are hurting more than previous years. Your generosity can help feed a family where parents and children are skipping meals and going hungry.
Why support for families matters now more than ever
The need for coordinated family support services continues to grow as households across Southern Arizona face rising costs and increasing financial uncertainty.
If someone is considering supporting United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, what would you want them to know about the difference their generosity makes for families?
Due to rising costs, increased inflation, and new regulations affecting AHCCCS, SNAP, and WIC, our families are hurting more than in previous years.
Your generosity can help feed a family where parents and children are skipping meals and going hungry.
