John Hope Bryant

Huffington Post ~ Solving Poverty: Fighting Blight and Poverty with Credit Scores

John Hope Bryant

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.

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Operation HOPE 21: Telling The Story of Our Founding

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.  

Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell to Lead Discussion with U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013, at the HOPE Center, Ebenezer

Who is America's $10 Trillion Man You Have Never Met?

 

 

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The Comptroller of the Currency is the administrator of national banks and chief executive officer of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC regulates and supervises over 2,000 financial institutions, managing over $10 Trillion dollars in assets, which represents more than 71% of the total commercial banking assets in the US.

 

Prior to becoming Comptroller of the Currency, Thomas Curry served as a Director of the FDIC since January 2004, and as the Chairman of the NeighborWorks® America Board of Directors.

Operation HOPE and HOPE Global Spokesman and civil rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young are honored to host U.S. Comptroller Curry as part of our HOPE Forum Series on April 16th, 2013, at the HOPE Financial Dignity Center Ebenezer in Atlanta, Georgia.  

About HOPE Forums

Leaders from the global, national, local and regional government come together at HOPE Forums with private, corporate, community and academic sectors to help America and the world discover sustainable solutions to our economic challenges at this critically important time. Sharing best practices and speaking on financial literacy and economic empowerment issues from business, legislative and educational perspectives, HOPE Forums seek to encourage discussion and provide insight into an ever-changing industry.

HOPE Forums combine targeted keynote remarks that provide a vision for the future, global leadership town hall sessions that encourage strategic thinking and plenary sessions that focus on tangible and tactical actions that can make an impact. 

For more information on the HOPE Forum Series contact Jodi Brockington.

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HOPE Forum Insight: A Need for an FDIC-Like Institution in a Reset Europe Banking Environment

Operation HOPE: U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, Thomas Curry Joins Ambassador Andrew Young for a Discussion on the Future of Banking America, in Atlanta, Georgia

HOPE Center to host a HOPE Forum on April 16th

 

ATLANTA – March 20, 2013 – Financial empowerment nonprofit Operation HOPE today announced that Thomas Curry, U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, will join HOPE Global Spokesman and Civil Rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young in Atlanta, to discuss America on Reset: The Future of Banking and What Comes Next for You, at the Operation HOPE Financial Dignity Center at Ebenezer (HOPE Center) on Tuesday, April 16.   

Curry and Ambassador Young will lead a dynamic forum around the important role the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency plays to ensure that America’s Federal Banking System remains safe and sound.  Attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions of U.S. Comptroller Curry.

 

This event follows the February forum where FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg provided remarks and had a dialogue with the Mary Beth Walker, Dean Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. This open event will become the second HOPE Forum for the center this year.

Saluting Operation HOPE's Own Lance Triggs

 

Lance William Triggs currently serves as Chief Executive Officer, Operation HOPE-Los Angeles, and Division President, HOPE Financial Dignity Centers.

Under Triggs’ leadership, HOPE has successfully modified and  loaned over $850 million in loans to small businesses, first time home buyers and home owners in crisis, committed over $1.4 billion in investments and 1.4 million customers served in 71 under-served communities across the United States and 3 provinces in South Africa in the form of youth and adult financial literacy (over 550,000 educated), money, credit and foreclosure prevention management counseling, small business technical assistance, digital empowerment initiatives, mortgage and business lending capital to first time home buyers and entrepreneurs.

Mr. Triggs also initially served as a project lead for the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Disaster relief initiative for HOPE.  To date, Operation HOPE Inc’s Project Restore HOPE campaign has assisted over 110,000 Hurricane Katrina victims, provided over $500,000 in disaster relief fund grants, provided $8 million in Earn Income Tax Credits and $14 million tax refunds for Hurricane Katrina victims.

In 2011, Mr. Triggs served a Project Manager for the “Rebirth of America” HOPE Financial Literacy Forum held at the NYSE Euronext on Wall Street in New York City that featured keynote speakers White House Executive Director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer, CNBC Anchor Maria Bartiromo, Financial Services Roundtable President and CEO Steve Bartlett, Gallup, Inc. CEO Jim Clifton, and Executive Director of the White House Business Council Ari Matusiak.

Homeownership Empowerment Expo with Congresswoman Janice Hahn and City of Carson Mayor Dear This Weekend

 

Son of Carson, California, Lance Triggs, division president for Operation HOPE, returns to his home city this weekend with real resources, and solutions, to help, lift, advance the lives of those who now call Carson, California home.

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I was so very happy to hear that Operation HOPE's own Lance Triggs, who also happens to be a very dear, life-long friend to me, joined together and in partnership with another dear friend, U.S. Congresswoman Janice Hahn, along with City of Carson Mayor Dear, to organize a very successful Homeownership Empowerment Expo in Lance's hometown of Carson, California.

The prodigal son returned home in a big way. He and HOPE had just under 600 participants in attendance (capacity was 450). Major Banks (Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, Ocwen -- formerly GMAC) were all represented to provide first time home buyer and loan modification assistance.

Bravo Lance Triggs.  You are a living testimony to and for all the good that your amazing parents poured into you, in those critical early developmental years living in Carson, Calfornia. I am so proud to see you now as the man you are, president of the HOPE Financial Dignity Center division nationwide, and now bringing hope, silver rights empowerment and solutions back to the people of Carson.

Lance, you are indeed, I believe, what Dr. King had in mind my friend. Saluting Lance Triggs, and all that he has done to advance our communities and silver rights over more than 18 years with Operation HOPE!

 

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Onward and with HOPE.

 

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. 

 

 

Operation HOPE from the JP Morgan Chase Housing Summit 2013: HOPE Produces Housing Results for Low-Wealth Americans

I was pleased to join Operation HOPE NYC CEO Mary Hagerty-Ehrsam for the JP Morgan Chase Housing Summit 2013 tonight in Manhattan, New York.  HOPE is a proud partner with JP Morgan Chase, and I am pleased to call Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of the bank, a friend.

Tonight, as Jamie Dimon outlined his vision for the future of housing in America, and the role that JP Morgan Chase and its partners might play, I reflected on Operation HOPE's own contribution to the sustenance and advancement of housing in America.  Mary Hagerty has as a partner in this regard, Lance Triggs, division president for the HOPE Financial Dignity Centers, featuring HOPE 700 Credit Score Communities.  Below is a quick snapshot of the results of our combined efforts in the housing and homeownership space organization-wide.

The Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotlines

·       Received over 166,253 calls for Mortgage HOPE Crisis Hotline

·       Created over 42,436 profiles for mortgage foreclosure prevention assistance

HOPE Financial Dignity Centers

·       Has served 1,074,697 clients to date.

·       Has educated 80,480 adults in financial literacy*

·       Successfully modified over $560 million in subprime mortgages.

·       Generated $946,086,648 in home modification, home mortgage and local community business loan approvals to 3,439 clients.

·       Graduated 2,789 clients from the Small Business Entrepreneurial Program, all of whom will return to local communities, shoring up critically important neighborhood jobs.

The American Banker: Making Customers Out of the Financially Underprivileged

 

Over 40 million Americans are under- or un-banked. Operation HOPE Chief Executive John Hope Bryant discusses how banks can make customers out of this under-served market and do well by doing good in the process.

A focus on the HOPE 700 Credit Score Initiative, what comes next for bank branches: HOPE Inside.

 

Busy on a Saturday: HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Anacostia-Washington, D.C.

This weekend our own Jena Roscoe, senior vice president for government relations and public policy at Operation HOPE, stopped by our HOPE Financial Dignity Center, Anacostia-Washington, D.C. with her mother, Ms. Wilma Roscoe.

The DC HOPE Center was filled with individuas using the computers in the HOPE Inner-City Cyber Cafe, and the conference room was full of an aspiring entrepreneurship class. Our own Kevin Parker taught the class.  On Friday, March 8th, 2013,  the HOPE Center, Washington, D.C, will host the National Consumer Protection Week Session where Dr. Camille Bussette, Director of the Office of Financial Education at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will return for the second year to speak. Dr. Bussette will meet with and engage with local residents and attendees about the agency's work, and answer questions regarding consumer protection issues, such as student loan debt, credit card and identity theft concerns, amonst others.  Our own Keith Parker will be leading our discussion during this session.

For information on the HOPE Center, Anacostia-Washington, D.C., and how you can get involved and engaged check here.