Using your voice: Terry Wattley on community connections, financial empowerment, and preparing for success

Photo credit: Motoya Nakamura

We spoke to a few incredible activists in the community about their work and what they’d recommend reading at this moment in time. Don’t miss these powerful picks.

For Terry Wattley, community work starts with connection.

Wattley is the Community Engagement Manager for the Black Economic Collective (BEC). His work centers on helping Black community members recognize their potential and support each other. Wattley helps create opportunities for Black people through:

• Building financial knowledge.
• Preparing young people for success.
• Curating community partnerships.

Through his work, Wattley hopes to connect with “like-minded community members who want to better themselves financially.”

Financial empowerment for the community

BEC brings people together around financial empowerment and mutual support. They offer workshops on credit, debt, insurance, financial literacy, and more.

"We're not financial advisors," Wattley explains. "But we have life experience. And we have people we can reach out to as resources to help people."

The workshops create welcoming spaces where people can learn practical skills and gain confidence navigating overwhelming and inaccessible systems.

Helping young people understand finances before entering adulthood is crucial for Wattley. BEC has partnered with programs that provide paid positions for students while incorporating financial education into the experience. 

Supporting Black students

Part of Wattley's work focuses on supporting Black student unions.

He’s the BSU advisor at Reynolds High School and is working to strengthen connections between student groups at schools throughout East County. Wattley’s goal is to create a network where students can collaborate, share resources, and support each other.

Students participate in leadership development, mock interviews, discussions about Black history, and more. "We found it very important that students know their history," Wattley says. "Not repeating what happened in the past means knowing what the past has been like."

The work emphasizes teaching practical life skills and creating spaces where students can discuss different challenges as they prepare for adulthood.

Outside the classroom, Wattley works to provide Black students opportunities to explore beyond their day-to-day environment. Through BEC programming, students have participated in activities like hiking, camping, fishing, rafting, snowboarding, and more.

"We find outdoor activities and getting outside of your environment is important," he says. “Especially with what’s happening right now.”

Creating spaces for healing

Mental health is another essential focus of Wattley's community work.

Through partnerships with organizations like Keep Growing Dreams and Unite Oregon, BEC is creating a Black Healing Center. 

This center is designed to serve as both a healing space and community gathering place. It will offer opportunities for holistic wellness, education, and connection while providing a safe environment where people can support each other.

"It was intended as a healing center, but it was more intended to be a safe space," Wattley says.

BEC plans to host financial education workshops in this future space, creating a hub for learning and community engagement. They’ll  also offer interactive experiences to help students understand budgeting through hands-on simulations.

Using your voice

For Wattley, activism is a fight. And it begins with using your voice.

He sees activism as challenging systems that create barriers for communities and advocating collectively for change. As the father of two boys, he thinks often about the future he wants them to inherit.

"I want them to grow up in a world where they can use their voice and not be condemned for it," he says. That vision motivates much of his work. It also reinforces his belief that meaningful change happens through community action.

Wattley encourages people to connect with local nonprofits and volunteer opportunities. "Reach out to your local nonprofits," he says. "Focus on some form of giving back."

Don’t know where to get started? Wattley highlighted organizations like the National Society of Black Engineers, Black Educational Achievement Movement, Latino Network, and the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization.

Recommendations from Terry Wattley

Wattley’s recommended reads encourage people to think critically about society and power. These include:

• Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell: Wattley shares these two books are particularly relevant to “open your mind up to the bigger picture of what's going on” in the world. These books show that “when you get involved, it becomes a bigger voice.... They're books that are needed to open you to what's going on.” 
• Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams: Wattley especially appreciates books that allow young Black readers to see themselves reflected in stories. "I didn't see too many Black male characters that looked like me in books," he says. "Once I found books that felt familiar culturally, I enjoyed reading more."
• The Last Gate of the Emperor by Kwame Mbalia and Prince Joel Makonnen: “A good book that I just recently read to my boys. They're big gamers. It pertains to gaming, virtual reality, and also being the descendant of something that's much bigger than you at that moment, but coming into the earnest power that you have ... and making the most of it.”

Throughout the library’s conversation with Wattley, he often returned to the importance of relationships. He expressed gratitude for his family, his longtime BEC collaborator and friend Chris Odom, and the many organizations working together to support Portland's youth. 

"That's what we do," Wattley says. "We support each other."

For him, community change begins when people come together, share knowledge, and invest in each other's success.

We’re so grateful to Wattley for taking the time to sit down for a conversation, as well as his invaluable support around community feedback for East County Library. This space wouldn’t have been possible without the work of incredible community members like him.

These recommendations from Wattley are a fantastic place to get started. Itching for more? Check out the full series!