John Hope Bryant

Solving Poverty: This Generation Needs An Economic Backup Plan

I recently met a very impressive young man while visiting with my father, Mr. Johnnie Will Smith, in Los Angeles, California.  This young man, who lived next door and is the son of one who helps to care for my proud and still self-powered father of 88 years young, possessed incredible vocal, musical, and even writing and producing talent.   In other words, he could not only sing and dance, he could 'think,' analyze and strategize too. The only problem with this young man's life success plan, as I shared with him, was that his primary dream plan did not have a practical backup plan.  And worse from my perspective, his backup plan, should really be his primary plan instead.  Let me explain.

Responsible rap (meaning rap that is true to its origins and roots), Hip-Hop, the broad world of celebrity, and our varied professional sports, are so very important to cultivate and carry forward as part of the larger African-American and minority success story framework for a race.  As Quincy Jones repeatedly burns into my soul and pounds into my thick head, "music, art and culture shapes the soul, helps to heal and bring together our world. They help to shape more well rounded people."  I agree with Q 100%.  

That said, having a career in music, the arts, entertainment (in front of the camera) and sports as the primary life success solution for more than 30 million African-Americans alone in this country, is just plain dumb.  Sure, a few lucky ones will make it through, but I would argue that most of them are not in fact all that 'lucky,' at the end of their career-day. A couple facts.

70% of all professional football players file bankruptcy within 5-years of retirement from the game, and there is a 100% injury rate amongst professional football players.

70% plus of all professional basketball players file bankruptcy within 5-years of retirement from the game.

And a vast majority of the "celebrity" artists, from rap to Hip-Hop and beyond, find themselves dead broke after a short, and often even highly visible career.  

Russell Simmons to Lend His Voice to the HOPE Global Financial Dignity Summit

Hip Hop mogul to join financial dignity nonprofit’s 20^th Anniversary activities

Los Angeles – October 9, 2012 – “Silver rights” leader Operation HOPE (HOPE) today announced that Hip Hop mogul, and humanitarian Russell Simmons has joined the HOPE Global Financial Dignity Summit (HGFDS) as a Featured Speaker. Simmons will lend his perspective for creating opportunity and an entrepreneurial approach to both business and philanthropy at the 2-day summit in Atlanta. 

Simmons known for creating a Hip Hop empire was recently named one of “Hollywood’s Most Influential Celebrities” by Forbes magazine. USA Today named Russell Simmons one of the “Top 25 Most Influential People of the Past 25 Years,” calling him a “hip-hop pioneer” for his groundbreaking vision that has influenced music, fashion, finance, the jewelry industry, television and film, as well as the face of modern philanthropy.

On HUFFINGTON POST: Why the Entrepreneurship of Inner-City Drug Dealers Might Signal American Strength

I hate thug culture.

But I think that ex-thugs might actually help save our inner-city communities in America.

Specifically, I am talking about the seemingly untapped brilliance of otherwise corrupt drug dealers and gang leaders here in our American inner-cities.

At the recent Clinton Global Initiatives America meeting (CGI America), I spoke about my vision for the re-winning of America, and it centers around our newest innovation with HOPE Business In a Box, Powered by the Gallup-HOPE Index. The example I gave while on stage at CGI America was not a traditional one. It was one of an inner city drug dealer.

As we were talking about the power of the American idea, small business, entrepreneurship and the thing we all need now -- job creation -- the simple question I posed to the audience of more than 1,000 assembled dignitaries and leaders from across the nation was "what do you think a drug dealer is, if not an unethical American entrepreneur?" I went on to make it clear that the whole idea of drug dealers and the gangs I grew up around in Compton, California and South Central Los Angeles actually turn my stomach. That I believe drug dealing to be immoral and unethical, and that "there is a special place in hell reserved for anyone who sells death to their own people, in their own community and in our schools." That said, they may be immoral and unethical, but if someone is a so-called successful drug dealer, one thing they arenot is dumb.

Read the complete article on Huffington Post here.

 

 

CGI America 2012: John Hope Bryant on Creating New Pathways to Opportunity | Operation HOPE Blog

 

CGI America 2012: John Hope Bryant on Creating New Pathways to Opportunity | Operation HOPE Blog.

Grammy-award winner Quincy Jones on financial dignity, the "civil rights issue of our generation"

His mission to bring hope and dignity to young people and their parents--through practical economic education.

Is there a tipping point for justice? Yes, according to John Hope Bryant, founder, chairman and CEO, of Operation HOPE, a not-for-profit organization focused on expanding economic opportunity in underserved communities through economic education and empowerment.

“The goal of 5MK is to reach, teach and touch five million kids in five years about the importance of understanding the language of money, entrepreneurship and the importance of education.”-Quincy Jones

Citing Malcolm Gladwell’s book Tipping Point, Bryant notes that “when five percent of citizens are [economically] positively and actively engaged a community becomes stabilized.” The end result is financial dignity, which Bryant calls “the civil rights issue of our generation.” He says, “There are almost no role models in ‘low-wealth’ communities.”

Reaching five million children

Operation HOPE’s Five Million Kids (5MK) Initiative is focused on creating a mainstream financial literacy movement in America by leveraging current trends on behalf of kids and their parents. “Our kids are brilliant, but their lives have been hijacked by a culture that celebrates celebrities and sports and equates being dumb with being cool. We need to flip that on its head,” Bryant says.

That’s where Grammy-award winner Quincy Jones comes in. Mr. Jones and the civil rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young are the National Co- Chairs of 5MK.

Bryant explains, “Quincy Jones is one of the few global brands who is relevant to every generation whether you like Kanye West, Jay-Z, or Dizzy Gillespie.”

Quincy Jones says, “The goal of 5MK is to reach, teach and touch five million kids in five years about the importance of understanding the language of money, entrepreneurship and the importance of education.”

Making capitalism work for everyone

Read the complete article here.

 

 

Operation HOPE Announces 20 Year Service Report Card

 

The Operation HOPE family is proud to present our 20th anniversary "Report Card" on financial dignity, service leadership and the financial and economic empowermwent of our people, to our people.  The below is our report to the world.  Let me know what you think of our global results to date, and the results we have achieved to date on behalf of others. 

Operation HOPE Announces 20 Year Service Report Card.

20 Years Old Today: Operation HOPE 's Founder Reports on Progress

20 years ago today, on May 5th, 1992, the organization that would change my life and give my life both purpose and incredible meaning -- Operation HOPE -- was born.  

Born after the worst riot and civil unrest in our nation's history, I remember my own personal frustration in the hours and days following the rioting in South Central Los Angeles. I also remember precisely right where I was, at the exact time when our community seemed to come unglued.  I was standing in my westside offices for Bryant Group Companies, then located at Santa Monica and Sepulveda Boulevard in the Westwood Gateway complex buildings.  I was standing there, looking at my community burn.  

I will tell my own personal story in a separate post, but needless to say, what I saw, made me want to act.  And act we did.  Soon, Operation HOPE had assembled its first loyal employees, led by my chief of staff Rachael Doff who is still with me today, soon followed by Lance Triggs, now executive vice president, and not long thereafter came Mary Hagerty, now Mrs. Mary Hagerty Ehrsam, who is first senior vice president and global chief of financial literacy. Then came our own Jena Roscoe, who literally walked out the door from her last job at the White House working in the second term of President Bill Clinton, to run our then new Operation HOPE Office of Government Relations and Public Policy.  And then there was my best friend Rod McGrew, who was the first HOPE Corps volunteer for the organization.  And then there was Fred Smith, our first president, and so many others. Slowly, all the executive and senior leadership team pieces began to come together.

HOPE has four principle divisions, HOPE Coalition America, HOPE Financial Dignity Centers (featuring 700 Credit Score Communities), Banking on Our Future and our newest division, HOPE Business In A Box (inclusive of the Gallup-HOPE Index), and has now been on the move for 20 years, serving South Central Los Angeles and countless underserved communities across the country; even around the world, just like it.  

Here is a quick snapshot of our global results (not including the work and results of Global Dignity, a sister organization to Operation HOPE):

$1.4 billion – the amount raised and invested by HOPE in and for the under-served population, from private and public sources. 

1,000 Plus - the number low-wealth homeowners and small business owners created and funded with responsible mortgage and small business loans.   

Just one of these countless minority owned small business success stories is Drobe Clothing (http://www.drobe.com/Story.html). I purchase all of my professional suits from this HOPE success story, paying full retail, which is recycling black dollars too. Drobe was created by a young black man, not much older than myself when I started Operation HOPE, and now it employs 6 local people, pays its local taxes, and in so doing adds to the whole of Los Angeles.  This is the real story of where most jobs come from.

$500 Million - the value of the subprime mortgages that the Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline has modified or restructured in the subprime crisis, at no cost to the borrower. 

155,243 – the number of individuals directly assisted by the National Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline.

241,577 – the number of individuals educated in the homebuyer, credit, small business, EITC, and foreclosure prevention workshops.

150,000 – the number of individuals HOPE served in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  And we are still there, serving others years after.

$15 Million – the amount of Earned Income Tax Credits funded to survivors of Hurricane Katrina alone.

273 – the number of cities in the U.S. and South Africa where HOPE currently exists.

5,000 – number of current HOPE partnerships with private sector companies, non-profit organizations, schools and government entities.

30,369 – the number youth and adults educated through the Banking on Our Future program in South Africa alone.

45,828 – the number HOPE Cyber Cafés memberships, including the Cyber Cafe at 3721 South La Brea Avenue, in L.A.

2,000,000 – individuals served to date through HOPE’s Empowerment programs, Banking on Our Future, the HOPE Financial Dignity Centers and HOPE Coalition America.

Today, HOPE is headquartered at Wilshire Boulevard and Hope Street in Downtown, L.A. and led there by our president and chief operating officer Mr. Bill Walbrecher.

This is Making Smart Cool ~ "New Knerds" Push Education

"New Knerds" Push Education: MyFoxATLANTA.com

 This is what we are talking about, when we talk about the 5 MILLION KIDS MOVEMENT, or 5MK, and "making smart cool," so kids stay in school.  Let's go...

 

Unveiling the Latest Edition of the Banking on Our Future Curriculum at Quincy Jones Elementary in South LA | Operation HOPE Blog

Unveiling the Latest Edition of the Banking on Our Future Curriculum at Quincy Jones Elementary in South LA | Operation HOPE Blog.

Caine's Arcade IS literally my vision for HOPE Business-In-A-Box!

 

 Okay, now I really know what my personal hero Ambassador Andrew Young means when he says that "coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous."  

This video of young Caine Monroy, which features a young person from East Los Angeles who has found his vision for himself --- in BUSINESS, is precisely what I had in mind when on February 6th, 2012, I announced HOPE Business-In-A-Box.  For Caine, business and fun are one in the same.  I agree. When you do what you are passionate about, work becomes easy, and fun.

This proves one thing -- our young people are assets, not liabilities, and their hopes, dreams and desires will go just about as far as we limit, allow, encourage or empower.