Have you ever considered Foster care for your family?
Do you know of the work that "More Than a Bed" does?
In this episode, Barbara talks with Tara Beck from La Paloma Foster Care and
Grace Stocksdale the Director of More than a Bed and has them share their cause
and great work within the community.

About Tara Beck:

Tara Beck attended college at Northern Arizona University for both her degree in Psychology and a Master's degree in Social Work, which she sought after beginning to work with foster families and children in foster care more than a decade ago. A focus was taken during her studies at NAU on the effects of trauma and how it impacts the developing child in efforts to help families better support children in their care.

Tara began working with foster families in the community which led to her becoming a foster parent herself. After finishing her Master's Degree in Social Work, she began working as a clinician for La Frontera Arizona and is now the Foster Care Supervisor at La Frontera's La Paloma Family Services, which is a licensing agency for foster and/or adoptive families in Pima County. Her experiences working with families and children involved with the child welfare system, combined with her knowledge of trauma and how it affects development, helped lead to better supporting families who are supporting children in care.

Since 1980, La Paloma Family Services has continually strived to provide solutions for children facing life’s greatest challenges due to abuse, neglect, and abandonment. It is our long history of service that has established La Paloma as one of the leading non-profit family service agencies in Southern Arizona. La Paloma and La Frontera Centers collaborate to provide services to children and families in Pima County. We encourage continued education about the foster care system and provide direct services to kinship, foster care, and therapeutic foster care families, as well as families wanting to adopt. La Paloma recruits, trains, and facilitates the initial licensure process for aspiring foster parents, and we continue to offer support as our families learn to navigate the child welfare system.

Company / Organization Website URL: https://www.lapalomakids.org/


About Grace Stocksdale:

Born and raised in Ohio, moved to Tucson in ’62- ‘69, attended UofA majoring in education, moved to NY City in ’69 where I was employed with British Airways, and then moved into Wall Street recruiting.

Returned to Tucson in 2007 to care for my 87-year-old mother who just turned 101.

Became aware of the foster care crises while heading up a group of volunteers at my church. Started talking to the foster families at my church to try and find a way to help in some way.

I and 2 families began discussions and More Than a Bed was conceived. After 1.5 years, the time needed to build MTaB became too much for the foster families who had 4-10 children each. Through continuous conversations with the families and teens in foster care, my knowledge and education grew. I began talking to various DCS caseworkers to try and understand the procedures.

I did not personally experience being a foster parent, nor did I plan this journey that I am currently on. The stories and experiences of the children broke and continues to break my heart. When I look into these children’s beautiful faces, I want to make sure that they are finally valued and safe and can see a future.

The first 3years we worked out of 9 storage units located at Ina and I-10. Then someone heard us on a radio show similar to this telling the audience that we needed a building so that we could offer much more to our foster families.

Six months later, we moved into our current warehouse which was donated and built by an anonymous donor especially for More Than a Bed to serve the children. We have now been in the warehouse almost 4 years and are bursting at the seams.

Website: http://morethanabed.org/
Address: 3637 North 1st Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85705
Phones: (520) 428-5280
Personal Cell to reach me directly: 917-612-1915
grace@morethanabed.org