My Wellpoint Care Why: Board Chair Clyde Tinnen

At Wellpoint Care Network, our mission is to facilitate equity, learning, healing and wellness by restoring the connections that help children and families thrive.

Our 18-acre campus located on Milwaukee’s northwest side is transforming into a neighborhood hub where families, neighbors and community partners will find trauma-informed social services, mental health resources and a place to connect, collaborate and care for themselves and one another.

“Wellpoint Care Network is at the center of a community that needs resources for healing,” said Clyde Tinnen, Wellpoint Care Network Board Chair.

Tinnen joined Wellpoint Care’s Board in 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic really brought to the forefront how many challenges those in our community are facing,” he said. “It was a traumatic time for all of us collectively, but certainly heightened for children and families going through displacement and the trauma that comes with that. Having an opportunity to join an organization focused on helping families in our community heal was important to me.”

For Tinnen, our work within Child and Family Well-being to help bring safety and stability to the lives of young people is his ‘Wellpoint Care Why.’

“I grew up in Connecticut, and my first best friend was a child in the foster care system. He was born opiate-addicted to a very young mother and had lots of behavioral challenges at a young age. He was fostered by a loving couple that cared for many foster children over several decades and was eventually adopted by this family. Even at a young age, he expressed a lot of appreciation and gratitude for the life-altering intervention of his parents.”

“Then when I graduated college, I worked as a counselor at a place called Kids in Crisis in Connecticut,” Tinnen added. “We worked with children who were teenage runaways or younger children that had been temporarily displaced from their parents, typically because of parental abuse or incarceration. That period of my life really ingrained in me how traumatic those experiences are for children and how important it is for them to have a caring adult to turn to.”

Now Board Chair, Tinnen is looking forward to continuing to move Wellpoint Care’s mission forward and impacting the lives of those in our community. He encourages anyone who is passionate about helping children and families to learn more.

“If you’re not already familiar with the work Wellpoint Care is doing, I invite you to stop in for a visit or attend one of our many community-focused events,” said Tinnen. “And once you are familiar with our work, I have a strong level of confidence that you’ll be encouraged to help us spread the word to others. It’s an exciting time in our organization as we welcome a new CEO, honor our 175 years of service in our community, as well as look ahead and imagine what we can be for the next century.”

Get Involved! Wellpoint Care Network serves more than 7,500 individuals across Wisconsin annually, and with your help, we can reach even more.

Together, we can create a world where every child and family can thrive.