John Hope Bryant

HOPE Never Sleeps -- Our Chief Technology Officer Literally Working in the Armenian Snow

Here is our Operation HOPE chief technology officer, Allen Yekikian, working to resolve some HOPE technology issue while standing in the snow in an Armenian city!  And he is on vacation, no less (smile). HOPE literally never sleeps!

A special thank you to Allen Yekikian and his right arm Sevan Torossian for all that they do to advance digital empowerment and the silver rights movement at Operation HOPE.

 

 

Microsoft Supports Operation HOPE's Mission to Empower Underserved with $1 Million Software Donation

Global leader in financial dignity to upgrade and expand technology and services throughout organization

LOS ANGELES--Operation HOPE (HOPE) announced today a $1,000,527.00 in-kind contribution from Microsoft to help support its “silver rights” mission to empower the underserved through financial literacy and dignity.

The donation, made up of over 2,100 units of software products ranging from office and business to design and content management programs, will help the financial dignity and empowerment nonprofit, upgrade computer services for its employees and clients.

“As our relationship with Microsoft deepens, so has the ability to better serve and empower under-resourced communities,” said HOPE Executive Vice President and Chief of Field Operations Lance Triggs. “We are pleased that Microsoft recognizes the important work that we do and look forward to using this gift to improve programs and services for clients at our HOPE Financial Dignity and Literacy Empowerment Centers (HOPE Center), as well as enhance corporate operations, client management and volunteer involvement.”

Read the complete story at Operation HOPE here.

 

The Work of Operation HOPE for 2011

 

A special thank you to my best friend and Operation HOPE strategic advisor, Rod McGrew, for lending his voiceover skills (pro-bono of course) for this inspiring video, which was shown at the 2011 Operation HOPE Board Retreat.

Okay, let's go...

 

John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass) the only African-American bestselling business author in America, and a Member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama.  Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of the Gallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum. 

 

My Renewed Vision of Operation HOPE Today

"Operation HOPE's 2015 goal is to become the leading urban delivery system for youth and adult financial literacy and economic empowerment in the United States, and the first recognized global brand for financial and economic empowerment of the poor and under-served in the world."  

I can say with utter confident that Operation HOPE is more relevant today, than at anytime in our 19 plus year history.  Made relevant that is, by the global economic crisis, and what comes next.  

The only thing keeping our mission and mandate -- around financial literacy empowerment as the new civil rights issue -- from becoming the front and center issue it deserved to be in a truly reset world, is that "the urgent continues to crowd out the important."  

In other words, in many countries, companies and households here and around the world, the economic fires of crisis continue to burn out of control.  Most of us now feel that the world will somehow survive this, but we don't yet know "who," in this new world will survive, nor how this story will end.  And so, countries, companies and individuals continue to respond - and lead if you want to call it that - out of fear.  

This said, as soon as this crisis settles, the next question out of the mouths of parents and leaders will be, "how do we make sure such a crisis never happens again."  

Enter, the central mission of Operation HOPE.

Operation HOPE is proud to announce today the launch of the New OperationHOPE.org—a redesigned, reimagined portal to the world of Financial Literacy.

 

 With this new website, Operation HOPE will revolutionize how financial education is addressed not just in this country, but the world. Built on a powerful web 2.0 platform, the new OperationHOPE.org harnesses the transformative power of the social web and deeply integrates with our new blog and growing social networks on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. 

This website knows no race, no class and no country. It’s both local and global. Here, on the internet, is where we will reset the system, change the rules of the game and propel the Silver Rights Movement for financial literacy and economic empowerment into the mainstream of American discourse.

Gabe and Joy define "Banking," from Banking On Our Future Online -- Special!

 

this is from www.bankingonourfuture.org, sponsored by our partners at E TRADE FINANCIAL.  This is so very cool.  Watch it with your kids and family tonight!  Let me know what you think.

Onward with HOPE

 

John Hope Bryant is founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, bestselling author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), and a member of the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for President Barack Obama

 

 

Introducing Banking on Our Future online for your children!

Sign your children up for cost-free financial literacy empowerment, today!  Banking on Our Future online is lead sponsored by our friends at E TRADE FINANCIAL.  Give your children the gift of empowerment, silver rights, and the "language of money" in a global economic age -- today!

Special from HOPE Leader Shannon Campbell: Google becomes newest supporter of Operation HOPE

Today, Operation HOPE received some very exciting news. We are the recipient of a Google Grant award. This award gives us $10,000 worth of FREE AdWords advertising on Google per MONTH, or more than $100,000 of in-kind support per year. With this access, and using their global and digital search engine, we will be able to place various targeted Operation HOPE advertisements to specific Google users, for FREE.

We have control over the HOPE messaging which give us access to a broader audience with the flexibility of using this platform to promote our financial empowerment services, recruit HOPE Corps volunteers, engage HOPE Country Partners with our new Wikia-HOPE Global Money Initiative and overall spread an encouraging message of HOPE.

Technology is a great tool and I am happy that HOPE has embraced it in such a large way. Within the last 30-days, HOPE launched the Global Money Initiative (www.globalmoney.wikia.com) in which users can translate our curriculum into any language around the world, our founder John Hope Bryant launched his new and improved blog, and coming very soon...the new and improved Operation HOPE website.

Thank you to the folks at Google for awarding us with a Google Grant. I am excited for the opportunity this brings to HOPE, in allowing us to reach a whole new audience who can take the first steps towards a life of dignity and becoming financially empowered.

Shannon Campbell
Director, HOPE Corps
Director, Wikia-HOPE Global Money Initiative

Pioneering Partnership Between Operation HOPE, Wikia and Casablanca Stock Exchange Brings First Global Financial Literacy and Empowerment Tool to Life

 Official launchof the Wikia-Operation HOPE Global Money Initiative hosted at Casablanca Stock Exchange by CSE CEO Karim Hajji features HOPE Founder John Hope Bryant, HOPE Global Spokesperson Ambassador Andrew Young and Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales

CASABLANCA, Morocco--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant, Wikipedia Founder and Wikia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales, and Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) CEO Karim Hajji, along with Ambassador Andrew Young launched the first international financial literacy empowerment tool, the Wikia-Operation HOPE Global Money Initiative (Global Money), at an international press conference hosted at the CSE and presented live online on March 3, 2011.

“The Internet and social media are becoming massive catalysts of change around the world”

1.3 Billion Jobs Needed, Now

 Photo credit to Forum of Young Global Leaders and World Economic Forum, during meeting in India.

As former President of Finland President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari said before the International Youth Foundation Leadership & Livelihoods Summit, “as we all know, the world economic crisis has spurred a record increase in global unemployment – dragging down economies and dimming hopes for the future. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the ups and downs of the global economy. Recent statistics reveal that the greatest number of youth ever – from 80 to as many as 100 million - were unable to find jobs last year; and in just the past two years, as a result of the global recession, 7.8 million more young people joined the unemployment rolls."  President Ahtisaari went on to say, “…with 1.3 billion young people standing on the threshold of adulthood -- time is running out. We need concrete solutions and real commitments.” I agree 100% with President Artisaari.  But I want to go further.

Respectfully, I do not believe the world is going through a recession. I believe this is a reset.

A reset that will certainly impact the world over time, and for generations to come.  Let me explain both the core "jobs" problem, and more so at least one of practical solutions.

Peeling back another layer on the above statistics,  there is an estimated 100 million jobs needed within the next decade or less (source: World Economic Forum), in the Middle East alone.   This is a region where soon, approximately 60% of the population will be under the age of 25. Think ambitious, frustrated, upset, more uneducated than not, young people in the Middle East --- 100 million of them. Now, fast forward to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other parts of the Middle East, over the past six weeks, and it all begins to come together.