Families

Graduate Gets Chance to Succeed; Teaches Others

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Graduates are everywhere you look this time of year. College students, high school students and even kindergarteners are being congratulated for their hard work.

But one recent graduate isn’t any one of those students and he still has reason to be proud; James Wallace recently graduated from the County Family Self-Sufficiency Program. This North County man says the program gave him the jump start to a better future.  

Rewind back four years ago. Wallace was having trouble finding a steady job. The veteran and single father of two daughters kept trying hard to get ahead; he was working, going to school and creating his own business. One day, the company he was working for went bankrupt and that was it.

“I’m not going without a job. I’m going to create my own employment and that’s what I did,” said Wallace.  

The sociology major heard about the Family Self-Sufficiency Program (FSS) in a class and he decided to apply. FSS is a federally-funded program managed by County Housing and Community Development (HCD) and covers the entire County region except for the Cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas, Oceanside, National City and San Diego.

FSS is open to those who get rental assistance from a program called Section 8. FSS is designed to help participants reach their educational and career goals.

“We’re providing them with the tools they need to be successful and off cash assistance,” said HCD Housing Analyst Sharon Ford. “It’s giving them direction and overcoming barriers to being successful say with child care, transportation and employment. It’s also up to them and their motivation as well.”

The idea is to go off cash assistance and be fully employed by the time they graduate from the FSS program. Those who are interested can’t just say they’ll meet their goals; they sign a five year contract outlining what steps they’ll take to reach them. HCD makes sure they follow through with regular updates.  

FSS offers resources and scholarship programs for the participants and household members to attend college or university, technical school or vocational school. Eventually, the training makes them eligible for higher paying jobs. 

As their income increases, their rental assistance payment goes down and the money that would have gone to rent goes into an interest-bearing escrow account. For example, if you received $800 to pay the rent and your income goes up $200, then you would put that $200 towards the payment. The $200 FSS would have paid toward rent goes into an escrow account in your name. Past FSS graduates have used the money for down payments on a home or to further their education.

Wallace says the program gave him an opportunity to get ahead and set aside some savings at the same time.

“He is extremely motivated,” Ford said, “a great example of a family self-sufficiency graduate. He took the program seriously, was very committed to it.”

Wallace was able to graduate from the FSS program in four years instead of five.

He’s also one class away from getting his bachelor’s degree in sociology from University of California San Marcos. His eldest daughter is graduating from UCSD with a 3.5 GPA and his younger daughter just finished her first year at the University of Idaho. All of them won semester scholarships through FSS.

Professionally, Wallace is self-employed at a service organization he founded in Escondido called Mind, Body and Soul Concepts designed to help at-risk youth avoid gangs, drugs and violence. He works with several school districts and designs behavior modification plans to help kids with their academic and social skills.

“He is no longer receiving rental assistance,” said Ford. “He is just shy of receiving his bachelor’s degree and is an amazing motivational speaker.”

Wallace is out of debt and upon graduation from the program; he said his escrow account added up to more than $11,000. “It’s like happy birthday to me,” said Wallace. He admits he’s come a long way from when he first had to use HCD’s services. He plans to pass on everything he’s learned to his daughters so they’ll be self-sufficient too.

Other FSS graduates have used their escrow account money toward educational tuition or down payments on a home.

“This program was a true blessing for me to move forward and do even better things,” said Wallace.

Perhaps the motto at his service organization says it all “Don’t talk about it; be about it,” and he’s doing just that.