In the summer of 2020, Ristom Habtemariam, a 23-year-old from Portland, was looking for work to keep him busy during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. An old friend and recent participant in Word is Bond, a Portland-based nonprofit focused on uplifting young Black men in the area, recommended the program to Habtemariam.
“It’s different than just clocking in, clocking out everyday,” he said. “They were doing meaningful work. That’s what intrigued me about it.”
Word is Bond provides extra education, community support and leadership training to young Black men ages 15 to 20 to directly address the systemic issues keeping Black children from succeeding in the classroom and the adult world. At any given time, they work with around 70 young men, hailing from Portland high school classrooms to juvenile detention centers.
“The whole experience of being a young Black man is, ‘What about us?’” said the founder and executive director of Word is Bond, Lakayana Drury. “We’re never thought of, we’re never catered to, we’re never told ‘You’re special, you’re important, you’re unique.’”
In Oregon, Black children trail their white peers in a majority of educational metrics. In 2022, Research, Assessment and Accountability, a division of Portland Public Schools dedicated to closing gaps between class, race or ability, shared that 67% of white students demonstrated proficiency in English. Meanwhile, 17% of Black students were considered proficient — the largest gap between any two racial groups in the data. Word is Bond works to even out these disparities.
“They are having a hard time navigating life in general,” said Susie Hammond, a family therapist and advocate who works with elementary-aged Black children in Oregon. “On top of that, when they want to be seen, when they want to be appreciated, when they want to be accepted… they’re not,”
When Hammond is able to connect with students early in their academic careers, she tends to see more academic and social success as they mature.
The Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study found that, in Oregon, Black children were more likely than any other racial group to experience Adverse Childhood Experiences. ACEs are classified as traumatic occurrences in a child’s formative years, such as drug addiction in a family, death of a parent or traumatic separation.
Because Black children are more likely to experience ACEs, they are more likely to fall behind in school. Hammond cites alienation as another contributing factor.
“It’s hard to walk into spaces that we know automatically we’re not accepted in,” Hammond said. “Sometimes it’s said, sometimes it’s unsaid.”
Oregon has a Black population of less than 2%, according to the 2020 census.
“Any kid who struggles with being in a space that they’re not welcome in — how can we change it so they are?” Hammond said.
Habtemariam said that, despite knowing that he was as capable as his peers, it was difficult to believe in himself when his opportunities were more limited than theirs.
“I already knew that I had these great things in me,” Habtemariam said. “It’s just always been about opportunities presenting themselves, for me to be able to express that, to prove to myself that I’m actually capable.”
Word is Bond doesn’t set specific goals for its participants — it provides opportunities for them to point their lives in a direction of their choosing. Many of the program’s participants go on to attend four-year universities or graduate school, work in politics or pursue business.
“I like to say that I was village-raised,” Habtemariam said. “And Word is Bond is part of my village. A lot of people were invested in me, and I just believed in and trusted that.”
In 2017, Word is Bond launched with its programs Rising Leaders, Level Up and In My Shoes. The programs differ in length and focus, but all of them place emphasis on imbuing young Black men with leadership skills and an encouraging community.
Through the program, Habtemariam was able to challenge the perceptions of others, both in his work and day-to-day life. He was encouraged to be more outspoken and confident in his abilities, to collaborate with others and lead by example.
The nonprofit offers internships at local businesses (Word is Bond has worked with standouts like the Portland Trail Blazers), camping trips, a luncheon with Black women to teach young men how to better engage with women, and yearly trips to Washington D.C. and Ghana. Word is Bond provides participants with formal wear, haircuts and headshots to help materially prepare them for success.
Through the program, Habtemariam had the opportunity to discuss overpolicing and oversentencing with Mike Schmidt, Multnomah County’s District Attorney in late 2020.
Drury said that the career-oriented aspect of Word is Bond — keeping participants focused and making sure they know that their voices matter — is invaluable to their success.
“It’s being able to work with our young men,” Drury said. “I can make them feel special or seen or heard. They’re going to show up how they show up.”
Word is Bond also has a week-long Redefining Justice program in which young Black men sit down with local police officers to share their stories. Drury said that challenging conversations need to be had in order to confront police brutality.
To optimize comfort between participants, the officers attend out of uniform and without weapons, while the youth participants attend in formalwear. On the final day, officers attend in full uniform, and the youth participants wear street clothes — encountering one another how they would on the streets of Portland.
Many of the participants are initially opposed to the idea of meeting with police officers, citing irreparable systemic divides that can’t be fixed through conversation. This aspect of the program initially made Habtemariam hesitant to participate at all, especially so soon after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020.
“I actually quit before I started… I really had no interest in (meeting with the police),” Habtemariam said. “But, Lakayana called me to make sure I was firm in my decision. He walked me through all the possibilities for the program.”
Habtemariam eventually decided to participate in the Redefining Justice program. Sgt. Joshua Silverman of the Portland Police Bureau participated in the program in 2019.
“It’s an exercise in empathetic listening, which is kind of hard for cops,” he said. “You know, our job, frequently, is to point out fallacies or logical inconsistencies… To purposely put that aside, to listen empathetically and emotionally… it was powerful, honestly.”
The Redefining Justice Program doesn’t seek to repair the relationship between Black men and police, but seeks to open the door to further discussion. Those meetings, though, can prove complex for both the nonprofit participants and the officers. Habtemariam cited hypocrisy as a key reason that the issue needs more progress.
“There were officers that expressed how much fear they walk with,” he said. “And it was hard for them to grasp that that’s what we feel… Some of them were conflicted; they understood where we were coming from, but they’re still behind that blue shield.”
Silverman also addressed challenges within the Redefining Justice program.
“The connections built there felt real and authentic and good, but it’s hard to universalize… I don’t know how much it moves the needle,” he said, adding the program included important conversations, but didn’t have a way to transfer those conversations into real life. He also pointed out that the only police officers who would participate in the program were those who were already committed to addressing police brutality and their own internal biases.
This is one of many obstacles Word is Bond has faced during the program’s eight-year lifespan.
“I don’t have a background in (running a nonprofit),” Drury said. “I had to grow with it. Learning how to be a leader, learning how to fundraise… a high percentage of donors are white. So, for them, it’s a big leap to get them to understand why it’s important for them to donate.”
Word is Bond is pushing forward, though, continuously creating opportunities for young Black men to close educational and social gaps.
“I have tons of students who are smart as hell — but that’s not reflected in what they’re seeing and experiencing,” Drury said.
Habtemariam graduated from the University of Oregon in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in business and a focus in finance. He spent last summer working in the office of Portland City Councilor Sameer Kanal, and credits Word is Bond, not with his success, but his confidence to pursue it.
This article appears in March 11, 2026.