Pastors John and Cynthia Wallace want to make Homewood an "Oasis" for locals

While some have turned their back on Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood, Bible Center Church pastors John Wallace Jr. and Cynthia Wallace are on a mission to transform their community through the Oasis Project. Since 2013, the couple has been advancing the neighborhood through Bible Center’s community outreach arm offering education, employment, and entrepreneurship services to Homewood families through programs like Oasis Community Kitchen, The Maker’s Clubhouse, Oasis Farm & Fishery, Own Our Own, and Everyday Café.

The goal for the Oasis Project is to "make Earth a little more like Heaven."

Wallace Jr., a Homewood native, was previously a professor at the University of Michigan and studied how church congregations can positively impact communities. In 2004, the couple moved back to Pittsburgh from Michigan to honor Wallace Jr.'s grandparents’ legacy by creating a more abundant lifestyle for those in Homewood.

Together, they’ve been working to revitalize the neighborhood through community-led initiatives, including buying and greening vacant properties, creating public spaces, and establishing third spaces for connection and collaboration.

“When people don't see beauty in their community, I think that somehow you internalize, like, I don't deserve beautiful things or items,” Cynthia Wallace tells Pittsburgh City Paper. The Wallaces are currently in the process of renovating some playgrounds in Homewood. She says “children should play and they should be happy. They should have a beautiful space in their neighborhood to do those things because they do deserve it.”

“I see myself walking down the streets when I see our young people and I see our kids,” Wallace Jr. tells City Paper. According to an Allegheny County report, Homewood had the highest rates of city homicides from 2016 to 2021. Wallace is hoping to change that.

“I'm a sociologist by training, and when I looked at the data on the condition of our community and I realized how amazing Pittsburgh is and all the opportunities and that greatness, I wanted to see that for the community in which I was born and raised for the children, families, and folks who lived here,” he says.

Education, employment, entrepreneurship

Currently, The Maker’s Clubhouse youth program has provided Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture and Mathematic (STEAM) education to more than 150 children in kindergarten through grade 5. According to Wallace, many children in the Homewood neighborhood face systemic challenges including academic underachievement, emotional distress, and lack of access to mental health resources.

The Oasis Project aims to address them by providing resources such as tutoring, homework assistance, and connecting these children with their teachers, as well as offering social-emotional learning and community mental health support.

Meanwhile, the Own Our Own program, which has graduated more than 100 people so far, encourages entrepreneurship.

“Own Our Own was built in response to the data that showed that Pittsburgh has such a low percentage of African American-owned businesses. We also know from research that business ownership creates jobs, pays taxes, enables people to take care of themselves, and also reduces crime,” says Wallace Jr.

Also, the development of the Oasis Project has also created employment opportunities for the community in places like Everyday Café and The Maker’s Clubhouse. Wallace Jr. hopes to provide youth an opportunity to experience their first job and equip them with skills that will advance them in their next phases of life.

Collaboration with other community organizations and entrepreneurs is important to the success of the project.

“The café is a venue where we do pop-ups so on Fridays, we invite entrepreneurs that have products to sell. You can come and do a pop-up at Everyday Café,” says Cynthia Wallace. The Oasis Community Kitchen is a place where food-based entrepreneurs can utilize the commercial kitchen space as well.

Community involvement is another pivotal part of the Oasis Project, and the Wallaces invite people to share their needs to better enhance the development of Homewood.

“We're here to support the community and so the community as individuals, listening to what they need, how we can partner with them, whether it is getting resources, whether it is developing programs, whether it is connecting them,” Cynthia Wallace says. She emphasizes the importance of partnerships and sharing information among organizations to effectively address social issues in the community.

The future of Homewood

By 2029, Wallace Jr. wants Homewood to be a beautiful community with thriving businesses owned by residents who foster the dreams and education of children. “The aspiration is that we will continue to catalyze the revitalization of the neighborhood so that physically, it will be beautiful and that it will be owned by people who live here and people who are from here. So it's not people from outside who own all the businesses and own all the housing,” he tells CP.

The Wallaces say they feel called by their Christian faith to continue doing work to impact the Homewood community.

“I'm one person with one assignment and that's to make places and people and spaces better,” says Wallace Jr.