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Tamara Brown is a supervisor with Family & Children’s Place HANDS program, but it’s clear that she could use some extra hands to juggle her busy life. In addition to her work with the agency, she’s a mom, a running coach and cooking teacher, as well as a foster mom to animals – work similar in nature to what goes on at F&CP.

Tamara volunteers with the Arrow Fund, a nonprofit that rescues and provides medical treatment to animals injured by extreme torture, abuse or neglect.

“I fostered my own tripod puppy before I adopted him,” said Tamara. When rescued, the dog, which she named Tuck, had a stump of a leg, “so the rest of that leg had to be amputated.”

In addition to caring for animals, the Arrow Fund works to hold the abuser responsible for the abuse, educate about animal cruelty and advocate for stronger animal welfare laws.

For Arrow, Tamara conducts reference checks on individuals and families that want to foster rescued animals. “Foster families agree to provide housing and care until the animals are medically cleared for adoption,” she said. Tamara has volunteered with Arrow for about a year and a half.

The service rescues and helps all types of animals, said Tamara, though “most of the calls are about dogs.”

Arrow works statewide – Tuck came from another county – and Tamara isn’t the only animal lover and protector in her family. Her sister works part-time for Arrow, doing home visits and checks and approving people to foster animals.

“It’s very much like child adoption,” said Tamara. “They do background checks, home visits – it’s a formal, rigorous procedure to be approved, to ensure the pet has the best possible living situation.”

Tamara knows about that, too. She was foster parent to her adopted son for three years.

In addition to her work at Family & Children’s Place and Arrow, Tamara volunteers with the Boys & Girls Club, coaching a Kids Run America running team and teaching cooking. She serves on her neighborhood association board, and supports other organizations and causes close to her heart, including children, Civil Rights and social action, economic empowerment, education, human rights, poverty alleviation and social services.