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Tony Hopson Sr. built Self-Enhancement Inc. from nothing to a $32 million-a-year powerhouse among youth service organizations.
On Aug. 15, SEI announced Hopson would retire 43 years after he founded the organization in 1981 as a one-week summer program serving Black children.
Over the decades, Hopson built the program steadily, adding a physical campus at Unthank Park, 3920 N Kerby Ave., in 1997. That facility provides classrooms, community space and a gymnasium for after-school programs that run year-round. SEI now offers it programs for students at 19 schools in four different school districts: Portland Public Schools, Parkrose, David Douglas and Reynolds.
SEI also offers community and family programs at a second location, at 2205 NE Columbia Blvd. As it has grown, the organization has also branched out into affordable housing and has replicated its programs in Atlanta and Miami. SEI says 98% of the children it serves graduate from high school.
Over the years, Hopson has played a variety of leadership roles in Portland. Among them: pressuring PPS to close the achievement gap between white students and students of color; fighting the closure of his alma mater, Jefferson High School (he was in the Class of 1972); and, most recently, joining with Rukaiyah Adams (an SEI alum) and his friend and collaborator, Ron Herndon, the longtime director of Albina Head Start, to form the 1803 Fund, a community investment vehicle seeded with $400 million from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny.
SEI’s chief program officer, Trent Aldridge, will succeed Hopson as CEO. Aldridge, a graduate of Benson High School and Portland State University, currently oversees SEI’s 225 employees and has previously served as a mentor to numerous students and SEI staff.
“Trent has been an integral part of SEI’s success,” Hopson said. “His innovative approach and deep commitment to our mission make him the perfect person to lead SEI into the future.”