Dr. Bruce Wallace, Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Victoria and a Scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, is the 2025 recipient of the Canadian Association of Social Workers / British Columbia Distinguished Service Award. Bruce received the award March 11th during a celebration of BC Social Work Week attended by Minister of Children and Family Development Jodie Wickens. The award was given in recognition of his lengthy history of teaching, research, and community engagement.
Bruce has been practicing social work in Victoria on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen People for more than three decades. He is recognized as an outspoken advocate focused on action and activities that respond to structural violence and inequities.
In the 1990s, Bruce was the founding Executive Director of the Victoria Street Community Association, a consumer-led organization of people experiencing poverty and homelessness that pioneered many peer-led projects including a street newspaper, an unsanctioned needle exchange, community economic development programs, and outreach.
In the 2000s, Bruce was active as a community-based researcher and pursued social change though the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC, and over a decade as a researcher for the Victoria Cool Aid Community Health Centre.
Bruce led a participatory action research project on access to dentistry for people living in poverty. His action research successfully facilitated the development of the Cool Aid Community Dental Clinic
In 2017, Bruce began an unlikely collaboration with Dennis Hore in Chemistry to co-develop an innovative drug checking program. By bringing social work together with chemistry and computer science, Bruce and Dennis developed Substance Drug Checking to be a global example of the potential of drug checking as an overdose response that is guided by principles of harm reduction, health equity, and social justice.
Bruce’s contributions to practice have been recognized with the University of Victoria Provost’s Advocacy and Activism Award and a Victoria Community Leadership Award as well as the President’s Chair at UVic which is the highest academic honour UVic can bestow on a faculty member. As a social work scholar, he authored or co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, several book chapters, and more than 80 refereed abstracts published as conference proceedings.
Bruce’s social work career is grounded in his sustained relationships with grassroots movements and consumer-led organizations. His approach to the development of services is evidence-based and people-powered. He is an outstanding community-based researcher and advocate for the rights of people who use drugs to be involved in the development of programs, services, and policies that impact their lives. Bruce is a strong advocate and a compassionate, thoughtful, and inclusive social worker.