PORTLAND, Ore. — Tony Hopson, Sr. — the founder and CEO of Self Enhancement Inc., or SEI — announced that he is stepping down from the nonprofit organization that's been around since 1981.
"Actually, we're just calling it a transition," the 70-year-old Hopson said Friday. "There's still a lot of work to be done in our community, and SEI is still growing, so there’s some other roles ... that I may stay involved in," such as fundraising, partnerships and community work.
Hopson founded the 43-year-old Portland nonprofit, which serves at-risk youth, working with them from 6th grade through college, or until they find a living-wage job. SEI also has stepped up during crises, such as with the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing curbing gun violence.
How SEI began
Hopson was just starting the nonprofit when Portland's first drive-by shooting happened, on Aug. 17, 1988, at the Columbia Villa housing project.
Hopson had known both the shooter and the victim, who were both teenagers and in the SEI program.
"I don't think they had a beef with each other," he told KGW back in 2022. "They had been playing basketball in our camp just a couple of weeks prior to that, so it really wasn't a personal thing. It was just a matter of being affiliated with two separate gangs."
Portland leaders then asked the nonprofit for help, giving SEI funds to grow from a week-long summer basketball camp program to a year-round program for kids and their families, aiding with employment, housing, health care, addiction and more, as well as providing mentorship and leadership opportunities.
On Friday, Hopson reflected on the legacy organization that touched, and still continues to touch, thousands across the country.
"There’s been a lot of victories that we’ve had, from the charter school that we ran for about 10 years to the change that we helped create at Jefferson High School, moving it from a 54% graduation rate to well over 93%," Hopson, a Jefferson High alumnus, told KGW.
"The whole goal for Self Enhancement was to provide option and opportunities for young people and families so we could basically level the playing field, so they could basically have the same opportunity to be as successful as anyone else," he continued.
But there's still much work to be done, Hopson stressed, including with the Albina neighborhood and being able to bring the people pushed out of the inner Northeast Portland neighborhood an "opportunity to come home."
The difference versus a difference
Hopson says he's been trying to retire for decades but wanted to find the right person to take over: someone who respects the past yet has a clear vision for the future. His successor, Trent Aldridge, has been with the nonprofit for over 20 years and is now taking over the helm as CEO.
As for what Hopson wants the community to know?
"The message is find out what works. Provide a collective effort around those entities, scale 'em up and then we can get to making the difference instead of a difference," he said.
But what does the difference mean to him?
"Graduation rates change, college-going change, healthcare for low-income people change, housing for low-income people changes," he listed. "That’s the work to be done in the future."
Meanwhile, Hopson is looking forward to spending time with his family and grandchildren, who have "sacrificed a lot over the past 40 years," he said.