SEI at 45: Empowering Youth Strengthening Families

Listening, Building and Helping Families Stay Rooted

Anthony Deloney, director of business development with the SEI drumline.

I first came to Self Enhancement, Inc. (SEI) as a kid who did not want to be there.

School had just let out, and my dad told me I was going to SEI camp on Monday. I loved sports, but summer meant freedom. I was not looking for structure, or SAT prep.

That first day, a line of Black men stood in front of us. Some were in college. Some were professionals. They had on the good shoes, the good clothes, the suits. And as a young boy in Portland Public without much exposure to Black male teachers, I remember thinking: I don’t know what this is, but I want to be part of it.

That summer camp was about so much more than basketball. We had academic classes. We had conversations about manhood. Adults told us that sports without education was a “long shot”. People showed us that we were capable and important.

One year, I won Mr. Classroom. It is the second-best award you can win at camp. That was the first time I remember being called smart. That stays with a kid.

SEI captured me early. During college, I came back every summer to work at camp. Later, I joined SEI through AmeriCorps and started working in the Leadership Project. I was young, so I had to become Mr. Deloney pretty quickly.

I grew into leadership, but coaching kept me grounded. Driving vans and listening helped teach me what young people were really carrying. Kids today are not so different. They still want to be seen. They still need adults who care enough to check. If you do not evolve, young people will evolve right past you.

Listening and then building has always been one of SEI’s strengths. We listen, then we create. When kids needed more access to sports, music, dance and mentoring, we built programs. When we saw that college was not the only path, we built an apprenticeship program with partners like Anderson Construction so young people could enter the trades.

For years, we told kids, “It’s not if you go to college, it’s when.” That was not a bad message, but one size does not fit all. Our job is to understand each young person well enough to help them find their path.

Portland has changed around us, too.

I have lived in Northeast Portland most of my life, and I have seen gentrification firsthand. I remember when I could drive all of my SEI kids home in 30 minutes. Years later, it took over an hour and a half. Families were getting pushed further and further out. The Portland that raised me was becoming less recognizable. 

That is why SEI’s move into housing makes sense. People may know us for working with youth, but the goal has never been just to create great kids. The goal is to help young people become thriving adults, build stable families and become leaders themselves.

Today, SEI engages 17,000 youth and families each year. We provide 400 services across 40 programs and 36 locations. We share more than 400,000 meals annually. Students in our programs graduate high school at a 98% rate, compared with 81% statewide and 73% for Black students in Oregon.

Those numbers matter. But behind every number is a person, a family, a story.

Now, as SEI looks ahead, affordable housing is a major part of our next chapter. But we are not interested in simply putting up buildings. If we are going to do housing, we are going to do it the SEI way: housing matched with services, relationships and support that help people stabilize and thrive.

Affordable housing can help someone get rooted. Services help them stay rooted. Homeownership and wealth-building change a family’s trajectory for the next generation.

That is what keeps me doing this work after more than 30 years. I have seen young people who were headed in the wrong direction become incredible parents, professionals and community leaders. I have seen one generation change what the next generation has to carry.

In a lot of ways, SEI is now in a harvest season. For 45 years, we’ve been planting seeds. Now we see those same young people grown up, giving back, and helping others move forward.

At SEI, we tell people: the way you pay us back is by looking out for the next young person the way someone looked out for you.

That was true when I first walked into camp as a kid. And it remains true today.

Anthony Deloney is SEI’s Director of Business Development. Learn more about SEI at selfenhancement.org.