The BOND Project

The Building Our Network of Diversity (BOND) Project is an all-volunteer non-profit organization of male educators of color and their allies who work to improve their recruitment, retention, development, and empowerment of male educators of color as well as boys of color. The BOND Project began as a small, informal, self-started employee group for people with common interests and issues: most notably teacher retention of black male educators. Today, BOND continues to facilitate programs that support initiatives both within the school district that it began and across school districts, in the U.S. The growth and development of this affinity group have not come without many leadership lessons learned which continue to help navigate the direction that the leaders of this group continue to utilize in the work of recruiting, retaining, developing, and empowering male educators of color (MEOCs). The BOND Project stands on four pillars: Recruitment, Development, Retention, and Empowerment.