Black Parent Initiative (BPI)
Since 2006, Black Parent Initiative (BPI) has focused on empowering parents and caregivers of African, African American, and African American-multiracial children to ensure their social, emotional and academic success. Systemic racism and serial forced displacement has caused significant disparities in health, education, housing, and employment, leaving many Black families unable to fully support their children's well-being.
We believe in the inherent strengths and brilliance of the families we serve, despite historical oppression and disparate treatment by social service systems. Our success lies in deepening relationships with the community we love and serve.
BPI is a culture-specific, community-centered organization that collaborates with families to create innovative and sustainable interventions. Using a culturally-responsive continuous improvement approach, we are able to evaluate our services and ensure that they align with community needs. Guided by Dr. Joy DeGruy’s Relationship Approach 3M model, we deliver high-quality, culturally-specific support for positive outcomes.
We emphasize cultivating meaningful relationships rather than just building rapport. Many organizations fail to sustain engagement because they don't establish these deeper connections.
As one of the few culturally-specific nonprofits in Oregon, that solely supports Black/African American families pre-birth to adulthood (ages 0-20). We address complex issues with expertise and compassion, focusing on optimal health, cultural identity development, parent education, and resource access to help children succeed.
The Black Parent Initiative supports SEI’s Education Co-Op as a transformative opportunity to advance academic success and resilience for Black students. With Black residents making up only 6.2% of Portland’s population, our community has faced historical and systemic barriers, most notably serial displacement, which disrupts access to quality education and creates an academic gap that affects social, emotional, and academic growth.
The Co-Op allows us to collaboratively address these challenges through targeted, culturally affirming programs and evidence-based resources that help our youth thrive. It can serve as a unifying force to set research baselines, evaluate outcomes, and define standards for Black excellence in education, filling gaps left by previous initiatives and systemic failures.
By combining expertise, intention, and culturally grounded strategies, we aim to empower Black students to rise above cycles of displacement and inequity and reach their full potential. As Carter G. Woodson said, “The education of a people involves more than the accumulation of facts. It involves the development of a mentality that will enable a people to understand their environment and to improve it.” The Co-Op is our chance to make that vision a reality.
Contact Info
Bahia Cross (Overton), Ph.D., Executive Director
bahia.overton@thebpi.org
