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O ct 10, 2014
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P H O T O B Y D IE G O D IA Z
Empowering minds
Portland's ground-breaking nonprofit, Black Parent Initiative, confronts the
challenges facing black youths a n d their fam ilies with community-based solutions
‘Every single day inspires
me to do the work that I do.’
BY ANN-DERRICK GAILLOT
S TA FF W H IT E R
BY ANN-DERRICK GAIL LOT
two jobs that allows Robert this space to
STAFF W R IT E R ?
create.
t’s warm on this summer day in the
Though Robert is only 15, he presents
Southeast Portland art gallery, but local
himself with the maturity of someone older,
artist Robert Collins stands unfazed —
reflective of the other guests at the party,
decked out in a slate blue three-piece suit most of whom are adults familiar with
complete with matching fedora. The sun
Robert and Amanda through the
streams through two walls of windows and
Community Transitional School, along with
lands on the opposite side where Robert’s
their volunteer work with the Veterans of
paintings hang. Robert greets the well-
Foreign Wars and the Military Helpline, and
wishers streaming through the door. All are
his new high school, Leadership and
here to celebrate
Entrepreneurship High School where
Robert’s artistic
Robert hopes to learn more about the world
accomplishments and,
of business. Earlier this year, Portland
of course, to wish Kim
Public Schools — in conjunction with the
M'^h& a ll h a w the greatest
a happy 15th birthday.
Black Parent Initiative (BPI) — honored him
aspirations lo r o iir children? With a savviness to
as one of this year’s Young, Gifted and
bat the questions becomes
match his wardrobe,
.Black Students, an annual formal
Robert reminds his
recognition of PPS’s high-achieving black
oar a b ility to leverage .
guests, “Remember!
students. .
resources? personal
All the paintings are
Afterward, BPI, acommunity nonprofit
com m unity resources? in the for sate!”
focused on empowering black children "and
“No,” says Robert’s
rearing and development oí
their parents to succeed in school, honored
mother
Amanda
Robert further by buying four of his
these h ld s /r
setting out birthday
paintings to use in future promotional
CHARLES MCÇEE
CQ-FOliNOE’ 8 L A C K P A R E N T 1 N IT i A VE cake across the room.
materials. One painting of a black mother
- “You can have
kissing her child on the forehead, graced
whatever painting you
the posters for BPI’s 5th Annual Parent ;
want” She smiles at
Symposium, which took place in September.
her son who smartly
In many ways, Robert represents BPI’s
stays quiet on the subject
model black student He excels in his
Down the hall is Robert’s windowless
studies, is pursuing his passion, and is well-
studio where he spent the better part of the connected to the social resources Portland
summer, waking up at 5 a.m. to bike down
has to offer him.
to where he would sketch and paint until it
But looking at his background, raised by
started to get dark. Since starting his
a single mother - both well acquainted with
freshman year in high schoo in September,
housing instability- and headed to a school
Robert has had to settle for only going
rated “below average” last year in student
before and after Classes. Once home in the
testing, and you see the work BPI still has
evenings, he continues to dr,aw.
to do.
“I have to tell him, ‘Go to sleep, Robert!’
Some of the challenges Robert and other
Amanda says proudly. It is her hard work at
I
S e e E M P O W E R IN G , p a g e 5
jjf
hartes McGee HI and 1 sit outside a coffeshop one
late afternoon, but we are far from alone. We are
V / interrupted multiple times by passersby who know
him and can’t help but say hello. He greets each one like
an old friend.
“And how’s your mother doing?” he asks in
conversation with a woman, walking her dog. He is
curious to know about others, and others are curious
about him. Even in his office, his phone buzzes.
constantly With messages and alerts from the mass of
people trying to get a hold of him.
Though it seems throughout his life he’s always had
many plates spinning at once, these days most of his
time and attention are taken up being a husband and
father of two young children and the president of the
Black Parent Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to
empowering parents to help their black children succeed
in school. On one side of McGee’s office is a bookshelf
filled with history and educational theory books from
which he quotes often when talking about BPI and his
hopes for Portland’s future, On the other side of the
room stands a table supporting photos of his loved ones,
family and friends, his wife and 4-year-old son, not yet
one of his daughter bow only a few weeks prior. He
points one out in particular, McGee with a black couple
smiling in matching outfits,
“That’s a picture of my amazing parents,” McGee
says. They do it all the time,” he says, referring to their
matching yellow ensembles, “It’s kind of excessive,” he
jokes.
His parents, he says, are the ones responsible for both
the strong cultural pride and humanistic curiosity that
informs all he does. Today,-McGee wears many hats — '
activist, community organizer, president and CEO - all
with the mission of helping parents be the best they can
be for their children. With all of the positive energy
McGee embodies today, it is hard to imagine that nearly
three decades ago he was a young child witnessing the
outbreak of one of Africa’s deadliest civil wars.
Like many great Portlanders, McGee was not bow in
See McGEE, page 5