Maralyn Beck is the Founder and Executive Director of New Mexico Child First Network, the only non-profit organization in New Mexico dedicated to improving the lives of children in foster care and empowering the families who care for them. After learning first-hand how broken the New Mexico foster care system really is, Maralyn decided to start her organization to provide simple solutions that can make a significant, positive impact in her community. While being a single foster parent, Maralyn has fostered 39 children, and of those - 12 were teenagers. In 2011, Maralyn worked for Governor Martinez, the United States’ first female Latina governor for her first year in office. Since then, Maralyn has been drawn to the political arena as a platform to engage with other passionate people that want to make the world a better place.

Maralyn joins me today to discuss how she helps children in foster care and their families. We discuss her entry into the political landscape and what inspired her to become a foster parent. She shares her first-hand experience as a foster parent and why she believes it’s the most broken legislative infrastructure in the country. We discuss the upEND Movement and its negative impact on foster children and foster families. We discuss why it’s critical to continue to recruit and retain foster parents and guardians to support the country’s most vulnerable children. We also discuss how the pandemic has impacted the severity of child abuse across the country and how you can get involved to help support foster children and their families.

“Every day that we’re making a positive experience in that child’s life, I hope, can contradict a previous negative one.” - Maralyn Beck

This week on Political Contessa:

• What inspired Maralyn to become an active participant in the political arena
• Why Maralyn decided to become a foster parent
• How she discovered that the foster care system was broken
• The challenges many foster parents face when fostering children in New Mexico
• The paradigm shift to abolish foster care
• The Family First law, why it was initially created, and why it’s crucial to recruit and retain foster parents and guardians
• The psychological impact of leaving a child in the care of their biological parent ‘at all costs’
• Why I believe many male politicians choose to avoid getting involved in foster care issues
• What Shadow Foster Care is and how you can get involved in helping a foster child or foster family
• How New Mexico Child First Network strives to support and empower foster families
• How the baby formula shortage has significantly impacted foster children and their foster families
• New Mexico legislation that Maralyn has advocated for that could help improve the foster care system on a national level
• The difference between raising a child in poverty versus neglecting a child’s needs
• Understanding what an Office of an Ombudsman is in Child Protective Services
• How the pandemic has impacted the severity of child abuse cases

Resources Mentioned:

• The Wonderfund
• Fostering Champs

Connect with Maralyn Beck:

• New Mexico Child First Network
• New Mexico Child First Network on Instagram
• New Mexico Child First Network on Facebook
• New Mexico Child First Network on Facebook
• New Mexico Child First Network on Twitter

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