Clifton builds hope for Tucson families | News

Kim Clifton founded the Tierra Antigua Hope Foundation to support southern Arizona families in crisis and children in foster care. Her nonprofit has helped more than 15,000 people by providing essentials such as meals, furniture and clothing — along with emotional support that helps families stay together and reminds kids they matter.

It was the first time the Tierra Antigua Hope Foundation organized its annual holiday party for teenagers aging out of foster care in Tucson, Arizona. A single interaction would leave a lasting impression on its founder, Clifton, president and owner of Tierra Antigua Realty.

“There was a child who said, ‘I’ve never had my own new pillow in my whole life,’” she recalled. “It broke my heart.”

Clifton quickly refocused her priorities as she came to understand the true challenges facing young people who suffer from poverty. She decided that instead of giving teens Starbucks gift cards, she would distribute useful items such as bedding, dishes and baby supplies for soon-to-be mothers.

“Everyone wants to buy a baby doll for littles at Christmas,” she said. “People don’t typically think about teenagers during that time. They’re a forgotten group.”

But not for Clifton. She has a heart for youths who will be released from the foster care system on their 18th birthday — often with no money, nowhere to live, few educational prospects and limited guidance to prepare them for independence.

 A champion of Tucson’s children

The veteran broker is a self-described caregiver and problem-solver — a powerful combination for the strategic mind leading the Tierra Antigua Hope Foundation.

Launched in 2014, the nonprofit aids people at or below the poverty level throughout Arizona. It provides meals for the homeless, stocks a local food pantry and donates to a women’s shelter. Since its inception, Clifton’s nonprofit has raised more than $565,000 and helped 15,000 people.

A strong area of focus — and one particularly close to Clifton’s heart — is the work she does for Tucson’s children. In addition to hosting the holiday party, which provides a sense of belonging for those in foster care, Clifton does everything she can to keep children out of the system.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done — opening a charity — and I have a brokerage and a 10-pound baby,” Clifton said.

At a moment’s notice, Clifton responds to requests from the Arizona Department of Child Safety for items such as car seats, cribs and beds — essentials families at risk of separation may need to stay together. The volunteer group helps fulfill basic DCS requirements to ensure qualifications for safe housing are met.

“There’s just more kids than there are caregivers,” she said.

For example, a grandmother might need furnishings for a bedroom so she can become a guardian for a child — and that’s where the foundation steps in. “If she can feed them, she can bathe them, she can care for them, she can love them, and she can make sure they get to school — but she doesn’t have the money for a bed or a dresser — that’s our space. We show up with no questions asked.”

Clifton receives requests through a platform called CarePortal and quickly works to purchase, assemble and deliver items to families. In the past year alone, she has responded to 81 requests, helping 143 children and offsetting the cost of $60,000 worth of items.

“She is really gracious,” said Pastor Adam Kemper, regional manager for CarePortal. “Just this last weekend, I was looking at my email and had several emails from Kim. She signed off with, ‘Thank you for allowing us to serve.’”

Nothing is too small for Clifton

Lena Abeyta with the Arizona DCS recalls how Clifton once told her to reach out if she ever got a “weird request” — and Abeyta did.

“I had a specialist call and say, ‘I have a family that’s requesting Easter baskets. I reached out to all the different agencies, and they said they don’t have anything left,’” Abeyta said. Clifton delivered three Easter baskets to a struggling mother so she could share a special moment with her children.

“You have to have a heart for people — and hers shines,” Abeyta said.

 ‘We live here, we give here’

When Clifton started her brokerage, Tierra Antigua Realty, with her husband, Matt, in 2001, she had no idea they would one day employ more than 1,100 agents at eight offices in southern and southeastern Arizona.

What makes their agency unique is that it both runs and funds the Hope Foundation. Real estate agents have the option to donate a portion of each property sale toward the foundation.

“We’re not pressuring anyone to do anything,” Clifton said. “We provided an opportunity for our agents to give. And it just has snowballed.”

“I don’t want anyone to not be wanted. And if there’s an opportunity to be with their family, and a bed or dresser or some food is going to come in between that — and I can save that — no way am I not going to help.”

Patrick Devine, a sales manager in the Northwest office, was sold on the idea.

“I decided that I wanted to actively give back,” Devine said. “So with each closing, my wife and I decided to start making a contribution to the Hope Foundation.”

With Clifton’s encouragement, he began volunteering at holiday parties, building dressers to deliver to families and helping plan a charity golf tournament.

“That’s the biggest thing that Matt and Kim have done — they’ve inspired many hundreds, if not thousands, of people to be involved and to give back,” said Devine, who was once the beneficiary of Clifton’s generosity when she saved his former workplace, which was on the verge of collapse, by taking over the Green Valley brokerage’s lease and adopting its six agents.

Whether it’s helping foster children or fostering agents, Devine put it simply: “It’s in her DNA to take care of other people.”

A personal connection

Whether it’s nature or nurture, Clifton’s generous work ethic traces back to her childhood.

“I had to work for everything I’ve ever had,” she said. Her father wasn’t in the picture; she grew up surrounded by alcoholism and was practically raised by her grandparents, “who already had 11 kids.” She remembers being evicted often.

“I don’t really remember being a little kid without responsibility,” said Clifton, who became a mother at 18, worked three jobs and remembers using food stamps. She never had the luxury of feeling like failure was an option.

“I’ve always tried to take care of others, even when I needed help myself,” she said. But her upbringing hasn’t turned her bitter — it’s fueled her to give Tucson’s children something better.

“There are some things in life you don’t get to choose, but you can either whine about it or do something about it,” she said. “Every day is a gift.”