Pitt Social Work Professor to Discuss Homewood Children’s Village in Oct. 18 Lecture

PITTSBURGH—The Homewood Children’s Village—a project designed to improve the lives of Homewood youngsters and re-weave the fabric of their community—will be the focus of a 4:30 p.m. Oct. 18 lecture by community leader John Wallace, the Philip Hallen Chair in Community Health and Social Justice and associate professor of social work at the University of Pittsburgh.

Wallace’s talk, titled “Making Pittsburgh ‘Most Livable’ for All: Lessons Being Learned From the Homewood Children’s Village,” will take place in Room 2500 of Pitt’s Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet St., Oakland.

The Oct. 18 presentation is Wallace’s inaugural lecture as the Philip Hallen Chair.

Wallace helped establish the Homewood Children’s Village in 2009 as a comprehensive community initiative aimed at improving the educational, health, and social well-being of Homewood’s youngsters. It is modeled after Geoffrey Canada’s internationally acclaimed Harlem Children’s Zone, which serves more than 10,000 children in a 100-block area of central Harlem. 

In Homewood, Pitt School of Social Work student interns have received hands-on experience helping in village activities. Wallace’s course on community organizing has moved out of the classroom and into the Homewood community, where students help advance the work of the village and assist in conducting research to benefit children and families.

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10/13/11/mab/lks/jdh