John Hope Bryant

HOPE Coalition America Posts Results for Project Restore HOPE: Hurricane Sandy

Los Angeles -- May 9, 2013 -- Since November 2012, Operation HOPE’s disaster preparedness and recovery division, HOPE Coalition America (HCA), has provided Disaster Financial Recovery personal counseling for 11,069 individuals and reached out to an additional 38,266 survivors referred by the American Red Cross for financial guidance and assistance, the financial dignity nonprofit announced today. These figures mark the initial efforts of HCA’s two year plan to provide services to individuals and small businesses affected by Hurricane Sandy in October, 2012. 

 

Through Operation HOPE’s disaster preparedness and recovery division, HOPE Coalition America (HCA), free financial recovery information and guidance is available for individuals and small business owners through a national toll free assistance hotline 888-388-HOPE (4673).

HOPE Coalition America Posts Results for Project Restore HOPE: Hurricane Sandy.

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Hurricane Sandy Update from HOPE Coalition America and Project Restore HOPE

HOPE Coalition America and Project Restore HOPE: Hurricane Sandy have already hired staff, and this month will be opening offices in Brick, New Jersey and other key cities impacted by Sandy in the state of New Jersey.

HCA has more than 1,000 professionals committed to provide volunteer financial case management and counseling, along with my team, for those impacted.  The lead volunteer partner for Sandy work is JP Morgan Chase, which has been incredible with more than 600 committed HOPE Corps volunteers leaning into this important work.

A special thank you to the State of New Jersey Relief Fund (for Hurricane Sandy), the Office of the First Lady for New Jersey, Mrs. Mary Pat Christie, the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Economic Development Administration, JP Morgan Chase, Ares Capital Management, the American Red Cross, UPS, Chubb Insurace which donated our 55 Water Street office space in New York, and a range of additional partners engaged here.

HCA is a national partner with FEMA for emergency financial and economic preparedness, response and recovery for the nation.  For more information on our Hurricane Sandy response work, how you can get involved, or get help, contact Fred Smith, division president for HCA.  Also important to the process is Mary Hagerty, CEO of Operation HOPE NYC and my NE leadership officer.

A special tank you to Michael Arougheti, principal of Ares Management of Manhattan, and a national member of the Operation HOPE board of directors.  It was Mr. Arougheti who spearheaded the corporate effort to get corporate leaders engaged and involved in our Sandy recovery efforts in the weeks following the disaster.  His leadership will be forever remembered, and much appreciated.

John Hope Bryant

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Operation HOPE Receives $200,00 Award from UPS to Help Empower Youth and to Provide Sandy Assistance

ATLANTA – April 18, 2013 – Financial dignity leader, Operation HOPE announced today that it has received a $200,000 grant from The UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of the UPS (NYSE:UPS) in support of Hurricane Sandy financial disaster recovery assistance and youth financial literacy programs Banking on Our Future (BOOF), Fellows Interns & Loaned Executives (FILE), and HOPE Businesses-in-A-Box (HBIAB).

 

"This $200,000 commitment by UPS Foundation builds from previous commitments to financial literacy and empowerment," said Latresa McLawhorn Ryan global vice president of strategic partnerships and development. “This funding will help provide us provide financial recovery assistance and guidance for small business and individuals affected by Hurricane Sandy, and continue our youth financial dignity programs.

 

Since its formation in 2001, the result of a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, HCA has helped more than 300,000 individuals and small business recovering from 33 disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Florida Hurricanes, tornados and flooding in southern and mid-western states and Hurricane Sandy.

 

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JPMorgan Chase Awards Financial Dignity Nonprofit Operation HOPE Grant for Superstorm Sandy Financial Recovery

 

NEW YORK—April 11, 2013 — 

Financial dignity leader Operation HOPE (HOPE) today announced a $400,000 contribution from leading financial services firm JPMorgan Chase through the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. The grant will fund HOPE Coalition America, the nonprofit's emergency disaster and preparedness division, and will support Project Restore HOPE: Hurricane Sandy to help families, individuals, and small businesses recover from the devastating effects of the storm. JPMorgan Chase has also committed volunteers to help Sandy survivors access the resources they need to rebuild their lives.

"JPMorgan Chase is an outstanding supporter with an incredible team that truly understands that partnership, collaboration, funding and volunteer people power construct the true model for successful long-term financial recovery for Sandy survivors and HOPE is honored to collaborate with them," said Mary Hagerty Ehrsam, Chief Executive Officer, HOPE New York Market. "Project Restore HOPE, with JPMorgan Chase's support, will empower thousands of families and small businesses in NY and NJ to get back on track financially and stay strong as they recover through economic triage, financial guidance, and long-term planning. HOPE is committed to coordinating every possible resource available to support a full recovery. Working in partnership with government, community, and the private sector, we will help restore hope and rebuild lives."

Survivors will receive guidance and assistance in completing FEMA and insurance claims, deferring payments and negotiating loans, developing recovery budgets, recovering lost documents, and accessing available financial resources. HOPE will also provide continued support for these individuals after their applications have been submitted and provide long-term financial planning assistance as they begin rebuilding their finances. JPMorgan Chase employees will also volunteer their time and expertise to help deliver these services.

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First Lady Mary Pat Christie, pictured here last year, announced today that the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund will provide a $600,000 grant to Operation HOPE.Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger 

Nj.com

BRICK — Just two months after Marie O’Boyle and her family moved into a ranch-style home in the Cherry Quay section of Brick, Hurricane Sandy struck. Two feet of water flooded the home.

More than five months later O’Boyle is still waiting on her settlement from her flood insurance company, while her and her husband debate how to rebuild in the most economical way.

"We’re just really having a dilemma about whether to knock it down and put up a modular or rebuild altogether or to raise the existing structure," O’Boyle said. "It’s a complex issue. We keep going back and forth on it."

A grant from the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund, which is chaired by First Lady Mary Pat Christie, aims to help residents, like O’Boyle, navigate the maze of financial questions that linger for thousands of people affected by the Oct. 29 storm.

"It’s such a labyrinth in terms of what you are allowed to get whether you raise your house, whether you knock it down, whether you got this amount of money from insurance, and it’s hard to figure out all that," Christie said.

The nonprofit group Operation HOPE will try to help storm victims answer those tough questions through its Project Restore HOPE initiative, which received a $600,000 grant from the relief fund. Christie announced the grant today at the recreation center in Brick Township, where one of up to six centers across the state providing free financial counseling will be located.

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Monies to help provide financial disaster recovery assistance for small businesses in Alabama Counties

 

ATLANTA, GA — April 4, 2013 – Financial dignity leader Operation HOPE (HOPE) today announced that it has received a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) to establish a Birmingham Small Business Disaster Recovery Office, which will provide critical technical assistance to area businesses that were impacted by disasters and economic conditions. The funding will help HOPE Coalition America, (HCA) the nonprofit’s financial and economic disaster recovery division hire and train local employees who will provide valuable information, guidance, and services to small businesses.

 

“We appreciate EDA and it recognizing of the value of financial guidance post disaster,” said Fred Smith, president of HCA, “Through our partnership with the EDA, HOPE will be able to provide critical capacity building assistance to disaster impacted communities, as we deliver services to area small businesses.”

 

According to estimates made by the University of Alabama, Tornados and storms reduced Alabama's GDP by as much as $1.3 billion and resulted in the loss of between 5,600 and 13,200 jobs statewide. Over a two-year period, the Alabama Small Business Disaster Recovery Program is expected to assist to more than 1,000 business owners in the six-county area surrounding Birmingham. Services offered will include identifying new opportunities and completing business plans, establishing accounting systems and appropriate banking relationships, completing and submitting applications for working capital and equipment loan and planning for future disasters and economic declines.

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I was honored to spend some quality time today with Operation HOPE friend Mr. Art Faulkner, director of the Alabama Department of Emergency Management.  He is a good man, and while it has been a time coming, we are looking forward to working closely with him and his agency and colleagues, as we mobilize support for low-wealth and underserved communities in the state of Alabama.

More to come soon. Stay tuned.

 

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 is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for 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.  Mr. Bryant is a thought leader represented by the Bright Sight Group for public speaking. Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: ACRE), a specialty finance company that is managed by an affiliate of Ares Management LLC, a global alternative asset manager with approximately $59 billion in committed capital under management as of December 31, 2012. 

 

Saluting Operation HOPE's Own Fred D. Smith

 

Fred Smith is president of the HOPE Coalition America (HCA) division of Operation HOPE. HCA is the nation's emergency financial and economic disaster preparedness, response and recovery organization, more commonly referred to as "America's economic Red Cross." In fact the American Red Cross is a national partner with HCA, and HCA has a national agreement with FEMA.  All accomplished under Fred Smith's leadership.

Former President and Chief Operating Officer of Operation Hope, Inc., the national nonprofit that provides economic education, financial literacy and banking services, Smith is also former Deputy Treasurer of the State of California.

Smith is a published author and guest speaker and community leader. He is a member of the board of directors of the San Gabriel Valley Council Boy Scouts of America, the Transportation Foundation of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Workforce Investment Board, and is a retired U. S. Air Force Colonel.

Smith earned a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and business administration from Tennessee State University. He is also a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington, and the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management, Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth.

 

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Islanders who are still finding it difficult to navigate through the confusing and stressful rebuilding process after Hurricane Sandy found some relief on Saturday during a resource fair at New Dorp High School. There, families, individuals and small businesses received free disaster recovery information. 

Organized at the invitation of  Borough President James P. Molinaro and through Operation HOPE, a financial empowerment nonprofit, and sponsored by the American Red Cross, Saturday's event offered a variety of services with experts on hand to answer a host of questions.

Some of these include: Deferring payments and renegotiating loans; obtaining copies of documents; filing and resolving insurance claims; completing home inspections; creating a logical financial recovery budget and EITC refunds; foreclosure prevention; selecting and managing a home repair contractor, and completing FEMA and SBA documents.

Representatives from Operation HOPE, American Red Cross, JPMorgan Chase, FEMA, United Way, SBA and New York VOAD Agencies were also there to offer advice for anyone still having trouble repairing their homes or businesses.

Project Restore HOPE: Hurricane Sandy Work, In Community on March 23rd, 2013