John Hope Bryant

Saluting Operation HOPE's Own Jena Roscoe

 

Jena Roscoe serves as First Senior Vice President and Chief of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Operation HOPE. Ms. Roscoe is the first Senior Director of the East Coast Regional Corporate Headquarters at Gallup in Washington, DC.  

Jena Roscoe is in charge of the HOPE Office of Government Relations and Public Policy, which is a global responsibility.  In this post Ms. Roscoe has managed the relationship of and between three Presidential Administrations, from (Democrat) President Bill Clinton to (Republican) President George W. Bush, to (Democrat) President Barack Obama.

During her tenture at Operation HOPE, Ms. Jena Roscoe has led or otherwise helped to marshall in almost every major national private/public partnership and national government agreement with HOPE over the past decade; including our HOPE Coalition America national agreement with FEMA, our national agreements with the FDIC, the Veterans Administration, the creation of the SBA Office of Entrepreneurship Education, and the Operation HOPE 5-year partnership with the FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE, amongst many others.  

Ms. Roscoe manages John Hope Bryant's personal public policy portfolio, including his involvement as a Presidential Appointee to the U.S. CDFI Fund at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, the U.S. President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, the portfolio of more than 100 Local Financial Literacy Councils for the Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment for the President's Council, under President Barack Obama.

Banking on Our Future and 100 HOPE Corps Volunteers Bring Financial Literacy Empowerment to Silver Springs, Maryland

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.

 

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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.

President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability Releases Final Report

By: Melissa Koide

3/21/2013

Helping young Americans build strong financial knowledge, skills, and habits will serve them well over their lives and promote sounder and more stable household economies.  This is one of several findings the Presi​dent’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability (Council) included in its final report to President Obama, which was delivered through the Department of the Treasury.

The Council’s report includes a number of recommendations to help improve the financial lives of American individuals and families.  First, the report finds a critical need to bring rigorous financial education to our young people.  Financial education is the foundation for better decision-making, and it should start early and continue to be taught in school. Treasury is responding to this recommendation by establishing a new agenda for the federal government to improve the financial knowledge of our young people through the federal Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC), which Treasury chairs.  The 21 agencies that are a part of the FLEC are working to equip parents and teachers to be able to better educate students about money basics and paying for college, and help employers communicate with young workers about saving early for long-term needs like retirement. 

A Personal Letter from Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman, and CEO John Hope Bryant and Ambassador Andrew Young

Operation HOPE is "the private banker to the working poor, the underclass, and the struggling middle-class," and the impact of our work can be felt on-the-ground, everywhere we operate.  Our mission is 'silver rights,' or making free enterprise and capitalism work for all.  Financial literacy is the tool, financial dignity is the goal and financial inclusion is the way. 

2012 marked new heights for HOPE's silver rights movement as it continued to reach out and empower underserved populations in new and innovative ways. HOPE divisions currently serving the community include:

 

• Banking on Our Future, focused on keeping the most at-risk youth from repeating the cycles of poverty and despair that has trapped so many in their families and communities by teaching them basic financial literacy, or what we call "the global language of money." 

 

• HOPE Business-In-A-Box/Gallup-HOPE Index, focused on inspiring a generation of young people to become future American assets of economic energy, small business and entrepreneurship.

 

• HOPE Financial Dignity Centers, including our newest HOPE Financial Dignity Center at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr''s Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, Georgia, are where we approve clients day one, subject to the resolution of their primary denial factors, and raise credit scores on average 120 points over 18 months of active counseling. We call it the 700 Credit Scores Communities Initiative.  The HOPE Center at Ebenezer marks our 11th HOPE Center across the nation, and is the proud anchor for the new Martin Luther King. Sr. Community Resource Complex next to Ebenezer Church.  Most people know that Daddy King, as he was lovingly called, co-pastored Ebenezer Church with his son, Dr. King, but what they don't know is that Daddy King served on the board of a bank for 40 years.  Even more than 50 years ago, the King legacy was alive with civil rights, and silver rights empowerment, too. A special thank you to our HOPE Center signature partners, including Bank of the West and Union Bank on the west coast, E*TRADE FINANCIAL in New York City and Washington, DC, and at Ebenezer in Atlanta, FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE members SunTrust Bank, State Farm Insurance, LPL Financial/NestWise, Wells Fargo Bank,MasterCard, and BMO Harris Bank, along with supporting partners including the Coca-Cola Company,Kaplan University, Equifax, the United Way of Greater Atlanta, amongst others.

 

• HOPE Coalition America, which is the national partner with FEMA around emergency financial disaster preparedness, response and recovery, or the "economic Red Cross" for the nation.  HCA responded to, and served, more than 200,000 survivors following Hurricane Katrina, and we are responding to Hurricane Sandy now. 

 

• HOPE Government Relations & Public Policy, and HOPE Forums, which both advance responsible public policy and help to shape, engaged public opinion.  The recent HOPE Global Financial Dignity Summitfeaturing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, with more than 1,500 delegates from 30 countries, covered by 50 major media outlets, is but one example of our focus here.

Read the complete personal letter on the HOPE Blog here.

FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg To Be Featured in HOPE Forum, Atlanta

2012 Gallup-HOPE Index Findings Show Gap Between Entrepreneurship Aspirations and Work Experience for American Youth

Education experts convene to discuss solutions to capitalize on economic energy of students

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Silver rights" nonprofit Operation HOPE, a leader in financial dignity, joined with Gallup to announce findings from the 2012 Gallup-HOPE Index (GHI), a joint project to encourage entrepreneurial development among youth. The organizations also co-hosted a panel discussion on comprehensive solutions to encourage economic and entrepreneurial achievement for America's youth.

The GHI is an annual survey that measures engagement, hope and economic energy of fifth through 12^th grade students in the U.S. Through exploration of students' future aspirations and their access to the necessary education and experience needed to achieve these goals, the study can inform educational programs and resources to help students become meaningful participants in the nation's economy. Initiated in 2011, the GHI is part of Gallup's 100 year commitment with Operation HOPE to assess the attitudes and behaviors often ascribed to entrepreneurs and to provide government and business leaders with data about student sentiment nationwide.

Results from the 2012 GHI reveal that America's youth are optimistic about the future and many have entrepreneurial ambitions. The results, based on a nationally representative survey of 1,217 students, show that 43 percent of students plan to start their own businesses. The poll also found that students understand the value of education, with 93 percent agreeing that there is a relationship between level of education and earning potential. Fifty-nine percent said their school offers classes in how to start and run a business.

Meeting the President, Before he was President

As we celebrate the second inauguration of United States President Barack Obama today, I am reminded of the first time I met the man we now know to be President,  when he was not yet our President.  He was actually the U.S. Senator from Illinois, and we were both honored guests at the annual Black History Month event organized at the White House by then President George W. Bush.  I wanted to meet him, and was introduced to the Senator by my brilliant government relations chief, Jena Roscoe, who has worked for me since she left President Bill Clinton's White House as his associate director of public liaison.

I shared my silver rights vision of Operation HOPE with the Senator, wanting to do more to serve the constituents of his state; with financial literacy for youth, financial and economic empowerment for adults and families, and financial dignity for all.

The Senator was supportive of our work, which we appreciated, but what also became immediately clear to me was both the aspiration and talents of the man I met as U.S. Senator. A man who was already looking far beyond even what I could have imagined as his possible impact.  It became clear to both Jena (Roscoe) and I that he was going to achieve much more in short years to come.  His view of his bold and energizing leadership contribution was clear even then. Very clear.

Today I have the honor to sit in service of the man I once met in another time and space.  This man, is now the newly inaugurated President of the United States of America. President Barack Obama. Only in America.  Only, in America.  What a great country.

Honored to serve.  And now it's time for us all to get down to work.

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 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 though leader represented by the Bright Sight Group for public speaking. Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, an NYSE Euronext publicly traded company, and a division of $54 billion Ares Capital.

 

 

Our Post Inaugural Contribution: The Gallup-HOPE Index Forum 2013, Tomorrow

The partying will be over tonigt, and the work fo restoring America with the silver rights they deserve, will begin again tomorrow.

If you are in Washington, D.C. for Presidential Inaugurational festivities, please join us tomorrow, January 9am-10:30am, at the Gallup Building (and the Operation HOPE Washington, D.C. Regional Office).

RSVP to Jodi Brockington, and see you there.

Okay, let's go restore America, together.

After We Inaugurate Our President, Welcome Our New Entrepreneurship Generation: Join Us for the Gallup-HOPE Index Forum, Washington, DC, 2013

For those interested in learning more about the Gallup-HOPE Index Forum, 2013, contact Jodi Brockington, deputy director of HOPE Forums.