Head Start–the federal program that promotes the school readiness of young children–began in 1965, the same year John Wallace was born. When his parents enrolled him in the nascent program two years later, it was the beginning of his life-long involvement with education and community outreach to low-income children and families. Student John Wallace went from Head Start, to Trinity Christian School, then all the way to the University of Chicago.
Today, John Wallace, Ph.D. is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh where he holds the Phillip Hallen Chair in Community Health and Social Justice in the School of Social Work. He returned to Pittsburgh and his Homewood roots in 2004 after sixteen years at the University of Michigan. Dr. Wallace strives to pass along his commitment to economic and racial justice, and has helped to educate and train postdoctoral, graduate, undergraduate and high school students, community residents and regional leaders.
Dr. Wallace’s passion to help others is rooted in the values of hard work, commitment to education, and the spiritual upbringing he received during his childhood. His parents and grandparents lived within 100 yards of each other in Homewood, and the presence of both his father and grandfather helped form Dr. Wallace’s belief in the importance of men as role models.
These principles continue to be evident in the work Dr. Wallace does both in his professional and personal lives. He co-founded the Homewood Children’s Village in 2008 as a child-centered, comprehensive community initiative whose mission is to improve the lives of Homewood’s children and to reweave the fabric of the community in which they live. Inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone, Dr. Wallace, the board and the staff of the organization have worked for almost six years to make the Homewood Children’s Village a reality.
Dr. Wallace has engaged students–from Pitt’s School of Social Work, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and the Deitrich School of Arts and Sciences as well as Carnegie Mellon University architectural students and the Heinz School–out of the classroom and into Homewood where they have received hands-on experience to help advance the work of the Homewood Children’s Village by assisting in research that benefits children and their families.
“Poverty is a tremendous inhibitor to success so it is extremely important to instill a strong education foundation in the children in our communities,” explains Dr. Wallace. “We connect with individual children but do not replace their families. Our work is to help children and their families remove non-academic barriers to academic success.”
Dr. Wallace has created partnerships with the Pittsburgh Police Department, the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, local neighborhood organizations, and others around individual children and their families to deliver high quality, evidence-based services and programs. Local foundations such as the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, as well as national funding sources such as the National Institutes of Health, generously support Dr. Wallace’s work at the Homewood Children’s Village.
Carrying on the tradition of his grandfather who started the church in 1956, Dr. Wallace is senior pastor of Bible Center Church in Homewood where he recently launched a social entrepreneurial program called the Oasis Project. The project encourages community development with a focus on youth being the drivers of their own economic development, giving them the opportunity to learn how to start their own businesses.
In addition to his selection as a Dignity & Respect Champion of Greater Pittsburgh, Dr. Wallace’s work was recognized by Urban Affairs Association and SAGE publications, which honored him with the 2013 Marilyn J. Gittel Activist Scholar Award.
When asked how he felt about being a Champion of Dignity & Respect, Dr. Wallace said, “It is a huge honor because it is consistent with my personal values. God created us and loves us and we therefore have a responsibility to treat people how they want to be treated.”
The Dignity & Respect Campaign is an awareness campaign designed to join individuals, community leaders, community organizations, educational institutions, businesses, and corporations under the common notion that everyone deserves dignity and respect. What started in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a local community effort, has now become a national initiative dedicated to driving inclusion and promoting campaign launch efforts in every major city in the U.S.
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