Town outreach worker promotes common ground

In today’s world, neighbors and co-workers often pass like ships in the night and may never really get to know each other. However, in the right setting, people can share their stories and discover there is more that unites them than divides them.

So says Sue Payne, the town’s new Neighborhood Outreach Coordinator, who has lived in Sonora, in Rancho Sahuarita, since 2005 and for five years before that worked on building a sense of community in Littleton, Colo., as Neighborhood Resources Coordinator.

“We enter or exit our homes through our garages, so most people don’t really even know their neighbors. They don’t know how much they have in common with the people who live around them. What I hope to do is get them involved in programs where neighbors can tell their stories,” Payne said.

When people get involved in such diverse activities as being mentors or tutors for children; working side by side in a community garden; competing in a race for a cancer cure, telling stories about growing up or even just dog-walking, they see qualities that they have in common, and that these outweigh their differences, Payne said.

In a growing town where many people are newcomers and are busy raising families, organized experiences where people can share their stories are helpful in fostering a sense of being connected and community pride, and those attitudes will allow people to maintain a positive tone even if they disagree on political issues, Payne said.

“We want to give people an opportunity to know about their town,” said Payne, who since 2005 has been working as a reference and electronic resource librarian at the University of Arizona Medical Center. She noted that medical students “all need a mom,” and that the part of her job not listed on her resume was holding their hands. She also has worked as a librarian in Littleton and Denver, with experience in youth at-risk reading and youth crisis issues.

Payne, a natural networker, started work on Feb. 28 and two days later was collecting business cards and phone numbers galore at the Grand Opening of the Municipal Complex.

“I was so impressed with the number of people who came, the enthusiasm of everyone, the community organizations that came at the very beginning and stayed until the very end. I got to meet a lot of wonderful people and got a lot of cards and phone numbers--a lot of contacts.”

She also has been meeting people at Sahuarita Lake Park for the past three years, and struck up a conversation with a school teacher from Flowing Wells who commutes to Sahuarita during the summer to jog around the lake in the early morning hours. While walking her dog, she discovered a neighbor had lived in the same town she had lived at a different time, and that led to reminiscing about that community.

With less than two weeks on the job, Payne is still working out what she will be doing with others in the town, but said “I have a zillion ideas running through my head.”

She hopes to use some of her experience at Littleton, where she was town ombudsman for a time, to find out what residents want from their town government, and to find ways to get adults from busy families involved. “We want to give people an opportunity to know about their town,” Payne said.

Among the things she did in Littleton was creating a Littleton Neighborhood Leadership Program, a hands-on nine-week experience designed to “ensure a continuing base of knowledgeable and talented people ready to fill leadership roles in the city.”

The Neighbor 2 Neighbor program helped residents manage issues within neighborhoods and encouraged storytelling. She produced a statewide all-day annual conference on building volunteer organizations; conducted HOA round tables for residents, leaders and experts on local issues; set up seminars for a property owners’ association to deal with problems in multi-family rental housing.

Also, she was the lead city employee on an annual retreat, an intensive study session where citizens brainstormed solutions to predetermined issues. She created a program to help the elderly and disabled remain safely in their homes.

Payne welcomes ideas, suggestions and questions and can be reached at 822-8824 or spayne@ci.sahuarita.az.us.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738