We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bill Wallace. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bill below.

Bill, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I started Tomorrow’s Promise Foundation as a way to give back to my community. Making poor choices as a kid and going down the wrong road brought me to a pretty dark and lonely place and I didn’t want to see other young people go down that road.

I literally started by digging in my pocket and throwing community events that celebrated the local youth. We offered free haircuts, food, school supplies, backpacks, face painting, etc.. Parents and youth would ask me when is the next event which motivated me to start thinking hard about the type of impact that I really wanted to leave. I decided i wanted to be more intentional and turn my efforts into more of a mentorship rather than isolated events.

The next thing I did was partner with Texas Parks and Wildlife to get youth out of the urban environment and into nature. I decided to use camping, fishing and hiking as tools to teach valuable life lessons to a community that was underserved. Once I had a chance to listen to the youth I realized that no one else was listening to them and started attending school board meetings and joining coalitions that advocate for students and families.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I founded Tomorrow’s Promise Foundation in 2017 as a way to offer youth access to enhance their quality of life skills. I grew up in a lower to middle-class neighborhood, however by the age of 15 years old I entered the ranks of discouraging statistics about young boys raised in broken homes.

After being tried as an adult and sentenced to prison as a juvenile, I initiated the necessary life changes which ultimately earned me a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Master’s degree in Humanities. Knowing firsthand how young persons struggle with identity, self-discovery and expression, my passion is to now lead the effort in disrupting, dismantling and doing away with the school to prison pipeline.

I understand that many youth grow up with damaged family structures will rarely get the opportunities I have been fortunate enough to encounter through higher education, guidance and community support systems. Today I leads the charge of Tomorrow’s Promise Foundation vision to guide, mold and influence the youth of today into the community leaders of tomorrow.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The nonprofit market for a grassroots organization is challenging in so many ways. One of which is that some people do performative work which actually gets more recognition. Throwing big press conferences and using connections to partner with large corporations often times steals the spotlight from the real issue itself and the people who actually do the work.

What has worked for me is to be present in the community, not just on social media. By being a presence in the community that we serve, I’ve been able to gain the trust of children and their parents. Having their trust in turn gives me credibility with official stakeholders such as elected officials and administrators.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I advise anyone stepping into a similar space to be an open book. It is nearly impossible to live two different lives in this line of work. People need to be able to trust that you at your worst, will still fight for them with integrity. This is how trust and confidence is built. Remember that people don’t expect perfection, but they do expect authenticity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tomorrowspromisefo.wixsite.com/mysite
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/53bw58/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tomorrowspromisefoundation
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bill-wallace-624024149

Image Credits
Bill Wallace