Tim Grove
While he was already busy in his role of Chief Clinical Officer at SaintA, since his interview with Oprah Winfrey on “60 Minutes,” Tim Grove has been inundated with requests for information and presentations. You might say Tim and the SaintA team are in high demand because of Oprah’s ‘golden’ touch.
The “60 Minutes” segment was inspired by a groundbreaking, five-part 2017 Journal Sentinelseries by John Schmid, “A Time to Heal,” which mapped the impact of trauma in the urban center of Milwaukee, one of the nation’s most impoverished cities. Marquette’s Law School sponsored the Journal Sentinel’sseries through a research fellowship from the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education.
Grove is responsible for the implementation of SaintA’s trauma informed care philosophy and practice. That includes overseeing the implementation of Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of TherapeuticsÔ(NMT) across all agency programs and creating the Seven Essential Ingredients (7ei) trauma informed care training curriculum.
With more than 20 years of professional experience in a variety of direct care and administrative positions, Grove is a mentor with the Child Trauma Academy, a master trainer in ACE interface, and a former CPI and Mandt instructor. He and the SaintA team provide training and consulting to a broad range of disciplines in trauma informed practices, including in-home services, foster care, treatment foster care, residential treatment, child welfare, community-based services, quality improvement and staff development. Simply stated, SaintA is in high demand for its breadth of knowledge and expertise in working with children and families that have suffered traumatic experiences.
According to the report by the Journal Sentinel, “In Milwaukee, the nation’s third most impoverished big city, trauma researchers contend the seeds of distress were planted years ago when the current generation of adults were children. They say that new seeds are being planted right now. That revelation is beginning to shift how Milwaukee and other cities respond to social and economic decline. It also is prompting researchers to explore why some who are exposed to childhood trauma emerge undefeated — and whether their resilience can be coaxed out of others and even scaled to entire neighborhoods.”
Grove credits one of his high school teachers—Mrs. Bucknam—for instilling in him the notion of becoming a psychologist. While he was inspired by his teacher, he jokes that he ended up on the social work path because ‘six years of school was more appealing than eight.’ Regardless, many children and families in Milwaukee are grateful for the seed planted by his teacher.
Originally from Iowa, Grove earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, prior to attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a master’s degree in social work. Upon graduating, he moved to Racine for about 3-1/2 years before moving to Milwaukee.
These days, even though Grove spends the majority of his time training others, he continues to work directly with kids and families.
“I try to stay grounded to the edge of the work by working with clients. At SaintA, we do a lot of work with the trauma informed care program, with the goal of trying to help children and their families find a path to healing.
“The work we do is incredibly real, and we are probably dealing with people who are the salt of the earth. The clients that we serve generally don’t have a lot of pretense. They are clearly struggling and they are in tremendous pain. On the other hand, there are tremendous possibilities in this work as well,” said Grove.
“It (the work) makes a difference. For example, there was a young boy living with his grandmother. She sought our services trying to understand his difficulties, so that she could help solve his challenges. Our approach led to a unique, different and powerful outcome.
“The grandmother said that no one had ever packaged the problem in such a way that she could see and understand his issues. To be able to see and experience what happens when that grandmother processes this information and, through enough repetition, begins to see that her grandson is getting healthier, makes the work we do all worthwhile. That’s just one of many stories that we are connected with every day and one of the encouraging pieces of what we do,” said Grove.
The work that Grove and SaintA does to help children and families is daunting, sometimes heartbreaking, and the suffering can take its toll on those working with the families. Thankfully, Grove has found ways to decompress and remain whole.
“Golfing is near the top of my list of ways to decompress. Some people find that remarkably ironic because golfing can be just as frustrating. I also lean quite heavily on my wife, family and colleagues, and, for me, there’s a strong religious outlet. I’m very active in my church community. It keeps me grounded,” he said.
Grove is also buoyed by the camaraderie that he’s seeing among various Milwaukee entities. He calls it ‘an unprecedented coming together for the good of the cause’.
“It’s worth noting that there’s an untold story happening here. The Milwaukee community is rallying around the topic of trauma informed care in a way that’s pretty unique. It’s really nice to see the efforts that are occurring to pull this together. People are wholeheartedly engaged.
“For example, Mike Lovell, from Marquette University; Reggie Moore, from the Mayor’s Office; Michelle Bria, from Journey House; and the folks from Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, just to name a few. There’s a coming together that’s pretty unusual in America. Most of the stories we hear—particularly in the nonprofit community—are about competition, but there’s a real potential for collaboration that will be vital to Milwaukee’s transformation. Something is about to ‘pop’ in a good way and it’s fulfilling to be a part of that,” said Grove.
He is convinced that the strides that are being made in trauma informed care are long-term and will make a difference in the lives of children and families.
“I would argue that the upward trajectory of positive change in Milwaukee has started; it’s beginning to occur. You never really know (for sure) until you look back with a little objectivity. I’m not being dismissive of the myriad of challenges Milwaukee faces, but it’s difficult to recognize the beginnings of an upswing, when you’re in it. The question is ‘can this momentum be maintained and can we stretch it out and prolong it’. My hope and prediction is that in five to ten years people will look back and say, ‘Wow…This is really great!’ I believe we’re in the early stages of this evolution,” he said.
Grove insists that he’s not alone embracing that perspective. He said that after more than 20 years of working with some of the most challenged and disenfranchised families in Milwaukee, his perspective is practical and grounded. He said everyone loves a ‘comeback’ story and what’s happening in Milwaukee is a compelling narrative when you consider the rise from such a dark place.
“In large part, one of the reasons I feel that we are making a comeback is that the financial resources are there to help make a difference. Milwaukee has always invested in the community, but there are challenges around how those resources are distributed. The community has a lot more to do in terms of equity for all our citizens, but Milwaukee is one of the more charitable cities. There are opportunities for us to continue to identify collective ways to make an impact, and we are working with groups that can create a collaborate synergy around these efforts,” he said.
Grove hopes that five years from now, SaintA is more connected to partnerships under the banner of resiliency and trauma informed care.
“We are actively seeking community partners to join in this effort, toward the goal of a more vibrant and healthy Milwaukee. It’s a unique niche. We need teachers, foster parents, police officers, staff at organizations such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters, mentors; all these people can play important roles to help promote a different and more positive trajectory. There are some really neat partnership opportunities in the community.
“My vision for the future is that our work is connected with Milwaukee’s transformation. We’ll see,” said Grove.
Indeed, we will see and thanks to the commitment, insight, expertise and dedication of Grove, perhaps Milwaukee has a reason to be optimistic as well.