The Tim and Joy Neuville Family Fund within the Waupaca Area Community Foundation (WACF) has awarded its $50,000 Forward Together Grant to Catalpa Health to open a mental health clinic for young people in Waupaca this fall.

“We were just blown away by the support of the Neuvilles and the community as a whole,” Lisa Kogan-Praska, president and CEO of the Appleton-based Catalpa, said. She called the Neuvilles “dream makers and changemakers.”

The grant will help cover the start-up and staffing costs at the new clinic. Catalpa will start with the equivalent of four full-time therapists with expectations for growth. The location has not yet been announced. Big Brothers Big Sisters and NAMI Fox Valley are partners in the project and will share space in the clinic.

Joy and Tim Neuville with Catalpa Health’s Trina Doxtator.

The grant was announced during the WACF’s Our Community Our Home Gala at Waupaca Ale House on June 17. Catalpa was chosen from among 18 charitable organizations serving Waupaca County that submitted applications. The Neuvilles offered the large grant to see what community needs could be met through visionary projects with the potential for making a significant, long-term difference.

“Joy and I wanted to help an organization that would provide a significant impact in our community,” Tim Neuville, president of Neuville Motors in Waupaca and chairman of WACF’s Board of Directors, said. “We felt that Catalpa met that criteria.

“We are thrilled that our donation helps make it possible for their organization to locate into Waupaca. We also hope that by making this donation it helps create more discussion about mental illness and in some way lowers the stigma attached with those words. No one should ever be embarrassed or afraid to seek professional help or to share their condition with their friends.”

Almost 350 people are making 2,000 trips annually to the Fox Cities from the Waupaca area to be served by Catalpa.

The three major health systems in the Fox Valley — Ascension, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and ThedaCare — teamed up to form Catalpa Health after the 2011 Fox Cities LIFE (Local Indicators for Excellence) Study, indicated children and teens in the area needed better access to mental health care.

In 2005 the Neuvilles established their charitable endowment fund with the nonprofit WACF, an affiliate of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, to help them engage in current and lasting giving that makes a difference in the Waupaca area. The fund generates grants each year that the Neuvilles can recommend to nonprofit organizations locally and beyond.

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