BIBLE CENTER CHURCH PASTORS CYNTHIA WALLACE AND JOHN WALLACE. THE MAKER’S CLUBHOUSE EARLY LEARNING CENTER IS PART OF THE CHURCH’S OUTREACH ARM, THE OASIS PROJECT.
by Maia Williams
For New Pittsburgh Courier
Homewood is rewriting its narrative for future generations.
Meet The Maker’s Clubhouse (TMC) Early Learning Center, a Black-owned and led preschool dedicated to serving local families. It is owned by Bible Center Church and part of the church’s Oasis Project, which is the church’s community and economic development division.
TMC Early Learning Center offers an education for children ages 3 to 5, following the Frog Street Pre-K curriculum. The comprehensive, dual-language curriculum supports diverse learners and promotes development across multiple learning domains. It focuses on foundational skills such as letter sounds, letter recognition, and reading comprehension.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for very creative lessons,” DiAnne Levy, TMC Early Learning Center director, told the New Pittsburgh Courier. She said the program allows teachers to present lessons in a variety of creative ways.
Executive Director of the Oasis Project, Pastor Cynthia Wallace, Ed.D., told the Courier that the preschool stems from a commitment to address the social and emotional well-being of Homewood children in addition to what she called a high-quality education.
“The center is designed to be a space of beauty, innovation, collaboration, and empowerment, reflecting the diversity of the community and anticipating the varied learning styles and challenges of young learners,” Wallace said. They recognized Homewood’s lack of prime early childhood education options. “The preschool aims to fill this gap by creating a nurturing environment that promotes positive racial identity, engages children in critical thinking, and prepares them academically and socially for future educational success.”
PASTOR CYNTHIA WALLACE, INSIDE THE MAKER’S CLUBHOUSE EARLY LEARNING CENTER ON N. HOMEWOOD AVENUE.
Its doors officially opened in November 2023 with the help of local partnerships and grant funding such as the Blueprint for Learning, Henry L. Hillman Foundation and The Heinz Endowments. “These partnerships have been crucial in providing the necessary resources and support to bring the vision of the preschool to life,” Wallace said.
Wallace mentioned that the overall goal for TMC Early Learning Center is to serve as a model for community-driven early childhood education in addition to enhancing educational outcomes for children in Homewood. “As an educator, I firmly believe that young children possess remarkable abilities to absorb and process information from their environment, making every moment a potential learning opportunity,” she said.
Levy cultivates relationships with teachers through 30-minute one-on-one meetings, giving them the opportunity to share feedback.
“I’m just having conversations with the teachers and asking them, ‘What do you need from me that’s going to make you perform better,’ and then we can go from there.”
Ila Williams serves as the center’s 4-5 year-old teacher and Nia Bowman is the 3-4 year-old teacher. There are also three assistant teachers.
Levy said she also values building relationships with parents and guardians and providing them with resources to enhance their children’s learning. If a child is struggling with writing numbers, their teacher may send home additional number-writing activities and other related exercises. The support provided is tailored to each child’s individual needs. “We also send out suggestions of book ideas for you to read with your children,” Levy said.
She encourages parents and guardians to connect with her to better understand their children’s needs and to share feedback.
“I’ve been able to establish relationships with the parents, which is really nice. I have parents come in and just chat.”
Levy continued: “I want you to feel that comfortable because we are having your children for eight to nine hours out of a day.”
Some parents and guardians have expressed satisfaction with the outcomes of TMC Early Learning Center, like Steve Davis, who told the Courier: “My grandson, Kadence Davis, has attended the Early Learning Center since its opening. I enrolled him and brought him to the center to get a quality Christian education from faculty and staff who look like him. I have been impressed with Kadence’s ability to recognize letters, begin to read and make significant progress academically since enrolling. I appreciate the teachers who notice his natural talent around math and engineering concepts.”
TMC Early Learning Center is part of the transformation that Wallace and her husband, Pastor John Wallace Jr., Ph.D., are creating in Homewood. John Wallace Jr. is a Homewood native who returned to Pittsburgh in 2004 from the University of Michigan. That’s when he became senior pastor of Bible Center Church (his grandparents, Ralph and Bernice Groce, founded Bible Center Church in 1956) along with professor at the University of Pittsburgh. In the years to follow, Bible Center Church would increase its membership, acquire the vacant building at the corner of Bennett Street and N. Homewood Ave., and start the Oasis Project. Today, the Oasis Project includes, but not limited to, TMC Early Learning Center; the popular “Everyday Cafe” sit-down restaurant at 532 N. Homewood Ave.; the Oasis Farm (an urban farm that not only provides fresh produce through a collaborative farm stand from June-October of each year, but also serves as a community hub for education on urban agriculture for people of all ages); and the “Own Our Own” Business Development Center, which provides classes in a cohort model that nurture and develop aspiring entrepreneurs. Own Our Own also offers co-working space, mailboxes, and ongoing lunch and learn classes to help build the skills of new entrepreneurs at 626 N. Homewood Ave.
“These initiatives collectively underscore Bible Center Church’s commitment to fostering economic, educational, and emotional wellness within the community of Homewood,” Cynthia Wallace told the Courier.
TMC Early Learning Center is located at the lower level of Bible Center Church, 717 N. Homewood Ave., and is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The preschool also offers need-based scholarships to assist with tuition costs and accepts Early Learning Resource Center (ELRC) scholarships. Seventeen students are currently enrolled, and Cynthia Wallace told the Courier she hopes to enroll a total of 30 children by September. Levy encourages families to explore the opportunities at TMC Early Learning Center highlighting the nurturing and education it provides. “I feel like parents really want their children to be with someone that is nurturing, caring, but also focusing on their education and my teachers provide that,” Levy said. “Give us a chance and see what we can provide, because we have a lot of great stuff that we’re offering.”
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