Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur
In the 50 years since the civil rights movement and Dr. King's dream, one problem (racism) has been replaced or at least matched by another -- poverty. Urban poverty, rural poverty, and poverty that hits blacks, whites, browns and others alike. As I have said previously in the Huffington Post, poverty is the new racism. If you are poor, everything pretty much sucks.
The old model of racism was based on race and the color line. The new model of racism is rooted in class and poverty. The old racism was obvious in signs that read White Only, from the southern states in the U.S. to South Africa. The new racism is more obvious in Misery Row.
Whether it is a feature on a boulevard in an urban city or a rural town, or whether it is at the entrance of a military base, the Misery Row looks pretty much the same. Predatory check cashers, next to rent to own stores, payday lending stores, title lending stores, and liquor stores.
One group of financial predators takes advantage of your financial problems and misfortune, while another associated group benefits by helping you to forget you actually have any.
I do hope that I find you well. I would like to thank you for sparing your time and effort to come and address my learners at Sandtonview Combined School, on Monday the 22rd of April 2013. Your presentation was so inspiring to me as the Educator/Teacher at the school working with the learners everyday and to the learners at large.
Its always good to hear from the "best of the best" in entrepreneurship in the world. We as a school were so fortunate and privileged to say the least. According to your stuff members, this was a first in South Africa where a programme was started and we were first to have a one on one conversation with the founding father of the organisation.
I would like extend my sencere gratitude to you once again for giving one of my learners, the opportunity of a lifetime, a paid internship with your organisation on completion/graduation. This has already motivated the youngster to even do better in his school-work and in terms of his behaviour right here at school. All the young business learners are so earger to follow in your footsteps and that of your partner Natasha Foreman.
The opportunity that you have given these learners is on that they will never forget in their lifetime. In addition I have also learnt, in my personal capacity as an Educator, various life changing lessons through your presentation. Your use of Twee and George in the selling of drugs and their death brought tears to my eyes. You know why? Its just because I am sitting in this classroom in front of my learners, some of whom are already using these drugs and its painfull as you see them destroying their own lives and what you tell them they do not even listern to you due to a variety of factors. Sir, your example on pregnant school girls, a reality that I see each and every teaching day of my life. I keep hoping that the ones that I have managed to inspire and brought to Operation Hope's Banking On Our Future programme will be inspired as iI did and be able to take their lives into a better future. Alutah continua with "Operation Hope" in South Africa and through-out the world as it is the only vehicle that will drive hunger and under-development from our continent.
May the Almighty protects you from all forms of evil so that one day I will meet you again and relieve to you my own personal life journey that I would have travelled.
Regards
Ganyiwa Isaac
Educator: Sandtonview Combined School, South Africa
Recently my Operation HOPE, Washington, DC and Operation HOPE, Maryland teams came together and had a very successful Banking on our Future volunteer event at Francis Scott Key Middle School in Silver Spring, MD. There were over 100 HOPE Corps volunteers present and involved, and included employees from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Women in Housing and Finance, Capital One, Fannie Mae, M&T Bank, Bank of India, BB&T Bank, Sandy Spring Bank, Bank of America, First Mariner Bank, FDIC, City First Bank, ETrade Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of Georgetown, and FINRA.
A special thank you to my friend and financial dignity supporter, Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot, who teamed up with US Comptroller of the Currency Barry Wides to teach a Banking on Our Future financial literacy class. Maryland Comptroller Franchot and US Deputy Comptroller Wides also spoke to the volunteers about Franchot's mission to get each county in Maryland to adopt a graduation requirement for a financial literacy class in the senior year. Severak counties have already signed on to support this financial dignity leadership initiative of Comptroller Franchot. Operation HOPE certainly supports him.
A special acknowledgement to Jackie Starr, who is our Operation HOPE market president for the Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
Operation HOPE, Washington, DC and Operation HOPE, Maryland are part of the larger mission of Operation HOPE, which is now a leading global provider of financial literacy to financial dignity empowerment services for the underserved, the working poor and the struggling middle class.
With 2 million clients served, 20,000 HOPE Corps volunteers, and more than $1.5 billion in private capital directed into America's low wealth and underserved communities, creating thousands of homeowners, small business owners and entrepreneurs over the past 20 years, Operation HOPE is making a difference. But we cannot achieve our mission alone. We cannot seek to advance the final work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., eradicating poverty and achieving a measure of economic justice for all, alone.
Operation HOPE operates the HOPE Financial Dignity Center Atlanta at Ebenezer Church, located on the campus of the King Center and as the anchor tenant of the Martin Luther King, Sr. Community Resource Complex. Martin Luther King, Sr, or "Daddy King" as he was called, co-pastored Ebenezer Church with his son Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement, and served on the board of a bank for 40-years; a little known fact. Daddy King was also focused on making free enterprise work for all, as his son was focused in the last years of his life on poverty eradication and economic justice.
The mission of Operation HOPE is civil rights to silver rights, or making free enterprise work for all.
WASHINGTON, April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --The National Urban League's (www.nul.org) State of Black America report released today concludes that despite social and economic gains, the African-American equality gap with whites has changed little since 1963—the year of the Great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the height of the civil rights movement.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Great March, this year's State of Black America—Redeem the Dream: Jobs Rebuild America includes a 50-year retrospective analysis conducted through the lens of The Equality Index®. The report shows that while the African-American condition has improved, including achievements in educational attainment and employment, this progress has occurred largely within the Black community. Double-digit gains in education, employment and wealth contrast sharply with the single-digit gains made in those same areas compared to whites.
Report more from the National Urban League on the 2013 Report release here.
Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur
Real success does not have to be complicated when a commitment to work is present.
This week I met Mr. Eric McLean, a mobile notary public here in Atlanta, Ga. who came by my office to have me sign some documents. As we signed documents I asked a fairly simply question -- "Eric, how did you become a notary?" I just assumed that this was a part time source of income for Eric. That's what I get for assuming.
Eric told me that he sort of stumbled into the business, paying $36 for a notary stamp to the City. He committed himself to working hard, and his first month he told me he made over $1,000.00 in extra income. By his 8th month in business, he was making $17,000.00 --- per month! At moments like this I am reminded that often times the blue collar worker driving the beat up plumber's van often makes more money and a better living than the so-called professional in the Mercedes Benz next to him on the highway.
Eric the notary went on to tell me that he had 10 other mobile notaries working for him in around Atlanta, another 35 mobile notaries in the state, and more than 150 mobile notaries in what he called his "national network." His national what?
21 years ago, this day, May 5th, 2013, the bold vision of and for Operation HOPE was born in South Central Los Angeles, immediately following the Rodney King Riots of April 29th, 1992.
"Rainbows, after storms. You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first."
After the Rodney King verdict came down, so many things just went dark in the community I loved so much. The community I still love. But not all things were negative, in the days and weeks and months that followed.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters and her local leadership group, led by Brenda Shockley as I recall, stood up their vision of and for Community Build. Today, Congresswoman Waters serves on the financial services committee for Congress, continuing to push her agenda for her people.
Then City Counciman Mark Ridkey-Thomas, who today is an esteemed and accomplished lead member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. I fondly remember Supervisor Ridley-Thomas for so many reasons, but a couple stand out for me. Mark (as I respectfully call him as a friend) served on our first board of directors for Operation HOPE. I remember our parting conversation. It was our first letterhead. We were committed to "eradicating poverty across America," and Mark (Ridley-Thomas) wanted to eradicate poverty and empower people IN THE 8TH DISTRICT! We were both right, but Councilman Ridley-Thomas was more right than me. He was 100% focused on empowering and serving the people in the district he was elected to serve. This impresses me now, as much as it impressed me then. I was sad to see Ridley-Thomas leave our board back then, by I so respected "why" he did it. I also got the phrase "With HOPE," which has become my global signature sign-off statement on all correspondence, from Mr. Ridley-Thomas. Finally, back then I would say that Ridley-Thomas was the only sitting elected official who really knew and understood community development, community empowerment, and the power of financial dignity in one's life.
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.
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.
Washington, D.C. and our nation need strong and effective leadership today more than ever. Congressman Mel Watts seems to fit that description to me. Important to me, one of my key employee's family was a constituent of the then Congressman in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they uniformly endorse him. I am told that while Congressman, Mr. Watt encouraged the local adoption of our Banking On Our Future, College Edition Program, where we educated college students in North Carolina on financial literacy. This suggests a man who doesn't just talk about things, but seeks to do thing too.
Congressman Watt has over 20 years of congressional experience on the Financial Services Committee, where he sponsored and/or co-sponsored economic empowerment legislation around homeownership, consumer protection, entrepreneurship, small business, and financial literacy. He understands the needs of prospective homeowners, the practical interests of the private sector, and the necessary role of the federal government.
Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur
I just returned from an inspring, and in parts equally frustrating trip to South Africa, supporting my on-the-ground team working for Operation HOPE, South Africa.
Inspiring because, well who would not be inspired by all that is South Africa. The cultural richness, the spirit of the people, and the energy present wherever you go. Or the natural beauty of the place, all the untapped resources, and the incredible opportunity to create real, even transformational change throughout the country. And all the stories...
The young boys and girls we spoke with me in a local school, who once exposed to the concept of entrepreneurship, vowed to keep both their heads and their grades high until graduation. They wanted very to become their own job in the future (owning their own business). Imagine looking out over a sea of young 16 year-olds, witnessing for yourself a new generation of committed entrepreneurs, job creators and leaders being born. Inspiring indeed.
Or the elderly women whom we met at a cheetah observation park who proudly announced to us that she had achieved an 'NQ4 financial business management designation' from the local Cape Technical College, allowing her to become (her description here) an "advanced and better skilled" small business owner. This wonderful lady was selling handmade South African products under a covered tent at the cheetah park, but for her this might as well have been a ritzy brick and mortar facility in downtown Cape Town. She was anowner of her own destiny, and she even made me feel this immense sense of pride she had, in doing for herself. An pride of creating her own job.
