John Hope Bryant

Bryant Economic Factoid, Reflection

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, a new friend in the work of Operation HOPE in the state, tells me that 33% of all Maryland residents would have to sell their car if they needed $3,000 cash in hand today. This should not be in America, 2012. We should work to open silver rights, and not just civil rights opportunity, for all.



John Hope Bryant is an entrepreneur, 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 sole 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.

I Believe in our Youth so Much, I am Backing Them in Business!

In early 2012, Operation HOPE (HOPE) will unveil its HOPE Office of Small Business & Entrepreneurship (HOSBE), operating from the Office of the Chairman.

On the eve of HOPE’s 20-year anniversary, the HOSBE will connect the 19-year plus track record of HOPE’s ‘input’ power (youth and adults accessing and utilizing HOPE’s battery of financial dignity programs and initiatives) with HOPE’s mostly untapped and transformational ‘output’ power. 

The goal internally at HOPE is to finally translate the well-known qualitative ‘good works’ of HOPE into undeniable quantitative impact; as measured by the HOPE Office of Innovation, Research & Assessment (HOIRA), and the Gallup-HOPE Index.

The goal externally is nothing less than 21^st century transformational change at the level of the local under-served community eco-system. To create a new culture of self-empowerment and entrepreneurial spirit at the level of community, and a new culture of self-generated job creation amongst our youth.

A new ‘silver rights’ culture for youth financial literacy and economic energy in America fired by the Gallup-HOPE Index Cities Initiative. We intend to be the absolute global authority on youth hope, youth economic energy and youth financial literacy, period.  That work starts here, now.

HOPE Business-In-A-Box 

Operation HOPE Joins The White House for Special Announcement for Youth Jobs Now!

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

January 4, 2012

 We Can’t Wait: The White House Announces Federal and Private Sector Commitments to Provide Employment Opportunities for Nearly 180,000 Youth

Today, the White House announced Summer Jobs+, a new call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for low-income and disconnected youth in the summer of 2012. The President proposed $1.5 billion for high-impact summer jobs and year-round employment for low-income youth ages 16-24 in the American Jobs Act as part of the Pathways Back to Work fund. When Congress failed to act, the Federal government and private sector came together to commit to creating nearly 180,000 employment opportunities for low-income youth in the summer of 2012, with a goal of reaching 250,000 employment opportunities by the start of summer, at least 100,000 of which will be placements in paid jobs and internships. Today’s announcement is the latest in a series of executive actions the Obama Administration is taking to strengthen the economy and move the country forward because we can’t wait for Congress to act.  

“America’s young people face record unemployment, and we need to do everything we can to make sure they’ve got the opportunity to earn the skills and a work ethic that come with a job.  It’s important for their future, and for America’s.  That’s why I proposed a summer jobs program for youth in the American Jobs Act – a plan that Congress failed to pass.  America’s youth can’t wait for Congress to act.  This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.  That’s why today, we’re launching Summer Jobs+, a joint initiative that challenges business leaders and communities to join my Administration in providing hundreds of thousands of summer jobs for America’s youth,” said President Obama.

“While young people who are currently disconnected from school or work are not contributing to our economy, we see these young people as ‘Opportunity Youth’ – because of the untapped potential they bring to the Nation.  Today, the White House challenged all sectors to go all-in and work together in creating pathways to youth employment.  Summer jobs are an important step – and to stay on the path to success, Opportunity Youth need social supports and access to relevant education, mentoring and training.  This spring, the White House Council for Community Solutions will participate in community discussions nationwide to learn from best efforts by youth, families, government, business, educators, and nonprofits to connect young people to meaningful career opportunities,” said Patty Stonesifer, Chair of the White House Council for Community Solutions (WHCCS).

The Administration also announced its intention to launch, within 60 days, the Summer Jobs+ Bank, a one-stop search tool for youth to access postings for any participating employers seeking to reach them where they are online. The search tool builds upon an open standard, the JobPosting schema endorsed by schema.org in November, 2011 in support of the Veterans Jobs Bank, and will include technical and promotional support by Google, Internships.com, AfterCollege, LinkedIn and Facebook. Today the Corporation for National and Community Service released a new toolkit created in collaboration with the WHCCS and employers to support businesses and communities in their efforts to help young people become productive citizens and connect to greater opportunities, both of which are critical for the long-term strength and competiveness of the Nation.

Today’s announcements build on previous commitments from the Obama Administration to support summer youth employment. In 2009 and 2010, communities across the country used Recovery Act funds to directly support summer work opportunities for over 367,000 young people. In the summer of 2011, the Department of Labor brought together private sector commitments to employ over 80,000 youth.

A new analysis released today by the WHCCS showed that in 2011 alone, taxpayers shouldered more than $93 billion in direct costs and lost tax revenue to support young adults disconnected from school and work. Over the lifetime of these young people, taxpayers will assume a $1.6 trillion burden to meet the increased needs and lost revenue from this group.Read the full analysis here.  

Businesses, non-profits and government can accept the President’s call-to-action by directly hiring youth as well as providing corporate mentorship experiences, internship, and other opportunities that connect young people to jobs. The three key ways organizations can engage are:

• Learn and Earn: Provide youth jobs for the summer of 2012 in the form of paid internships and/or permanent positions that provide on-the-job training. Of the roughly 180,000 job commitments announced today more than 70,000 are Learn and Earn commitments.

• Life Skills: Provide youth work-related soft skills, such as communication, time management and teamwork, through coursework and/or experience.  This includes resume writing or interview workshops and mentorship programs.

• Work Skills: Provide youth insight into the world of work to prepare for employment.  This includes job shadow days and internships. More information about this initiative can be found at dol.gov/summerjobs

As the nation continues to recover from the deepest recession since the Great Depression, American youth are struggling to get the work experience they need for jobs of the future. According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (Current Population Survey):

• 48.8 percent of youth between the ages of 16-24 were employed in July, the month when youth employment usually peaks. This is significantly lower than the 59.2 percent of youth who were employed five years ago and 63.3 percent of youth who were employed 10 years ago. 

• Minority youth had an especially difficult time finding employment this past summer. Only 34.6 percent of African American youth and 42.9 percent of Hispanic youth had a job this past July.

In addition to the organizations making commitments for the summer of 2012, the Department of Labor will honor UPS, We Are Golf, Wells Fargo, and Jamba Juice for their strong participation in their 2011 summer jobs effort and the Corporation for National and Community Service will honor Bank of America, State Street, Viacom, Deloitte, and JP Morgan for their leadership in corporate mentoring over the past year.

Commitments Announced Include:

Bryant On Leadership: Smart Policy, Dumb Politics

Newt Gingrich's politics are not my own, but there have been flashes of brilliance, and generally I have always considered him to be one of the most intelligent "thinkers" within the Republican Party. Even my friend former President Bill Clinton said as much in recent public comments, and Mr. Clinton has good reason to be more than a little hesitant about Mr. Gingrich.

You could agree with him, or passionately disagree with him, and maybe even question intent with respect to some of his actions while in public office. This said, generally speaking I cannot remember ever saying he sounded just plain dumb. Comments by Mr. Gingrich two weeks ago, unfortunately, changed that for me.

Recently the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, took a pretty smart public policy idea -- that of encouraging the economic energy of all of America's young people -- and turned it into a  pretty dumb political stunt. Worse, it was a political stunt that spoke down, and into the dark well of some of the worse aspects of human prejudice. That unspoken bias and belief that '... there's nothing wrong in limiting the aspirations of little black and brown kids to being say... a janitor in America.'

A Different Sort of Love Story

Hanging with Vince and my crew at my local barber shop, Rick's Barber Shop, where you get the real education of what's going on in the economy, and the neighborhood. But coming here today was really just an excuse to ride my other love -- my Indian Chief motorcycle. She is pure class, strength, elegance, style and grace. Her beauty sort of sneaks up on you. Understated elegance. A strength that does not need to scream or draw undue attention to herself.



Sometimes I call her Beast, and sometimes I call her Freedom. You can guess her selected name for this day (smile).


We all need someone and something to love, something meaningful to do, and something to wish for.


John Hope Bryant is founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and bestselling author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

- Posted from my iPhone

John Hope Bryant Quote of the Day

"The Bible suggests, be hot or be cold, but if you are lukewarm I will spat you out. Translation: even God doesn't like mediocrity. Be passionate about something, anything, and if possible everything that you do."

John Hope Bryant, speaking at 16th Annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference, Jamaica


John Hope Bryant is founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and bestselling author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass).

- Posted from my iPhone

Ketchum Family Commits $20,000 to Fuel New Gallup-HOPE Index Local Study

Personal contribution by Rick and Mary Beth Ketchum paves way for other individual donors

DALLAS--Rick and Mary Beth Ketchum’s $20,000 contribution to Operation HOPE, the leader in economic empowerment and financial dignity, will help fuel a study with global research-based consultancy, Gallup, Inc that will gauge the entrepreneurial aspirations and energy that could help drive future job creation in America and is based on the Banking on Our Future curriculum.

The Ketchum contribution will focus on students in the Dallas Independent School system and support HOPE’s Office of Innovation, Research and Assessment.
 
“We will never succeed in addressing our equity or global competitiveness challenges until we provide our youth of all economic backgrounds with the knowledge, tools and will to succeed,” shared Mr. Ketchum.

Read the complete story here.

 

 

Introducing the Audio Track for DIGNITY, by Dave Stewart and Nadirah X

Dignity 6b mix

Introducing the global launch of the official song for Global Dignity, entitled DIGNITY, produced by Dave Stewart (The Eurythmics) and performed by Nadirah X.  Thanks to Dave Stewart and Nadirah's generousity, we have released this song commercial-free, meaning you can download it for free here!  

Our only request is that if you like it, Tweet about, talk about it on Facebook and "make it cool" through social media and your friends around the world!

We will soon have a n iTunes, commercial version of the song available for anyone who would actually like to support the work of Global Dignity by purchasing the song and making a contribution to the organization.

Enjoy, and let and us know what you think!  The DIGNITY song was officially released during the inaugural Global Dignity Forum here in Helsinki, Finland.

 

SPECIAL FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST: On Leadership: Jobs, Confidence and Debating Obama

   

As the founder, chairman and CEO of a large non-profit organization which is the global leader for financial dignity, the only way we succeed (for our client) is to build bridges and to create successful partnerships. I am a common-sense guy, and I tend to want the right answer, even if it is not my answer. So I don't find hardened partisan politics generally useful in my efforts to both bring leaders together, and ultimately, bottom line -- my efforts to create solutions and to empower the poor and under-served of our nation. Increasingly, the middle-class feel poor, and we serve them, too.

My clients are not partisan politics nor, respectfully, politicians -- but poor people.

Over the years I have worked with Democratic and Republican presidents alike, from President Clinton, to President Bush and ,now, President Obama. Our work has been noted by the last five U.S. presidents, I have been honored to serve as an advisor to three U.S. presidents, and I have served as a Presidential Appointee for President George W. Bush, and now serve proudly as an appointee under President Obama. I try to keep my personal bias out of the discussion, and just keep the trains running on time. Poor people simply do not care about my political persuasion or yours, frankly. They simply want a reasonably better shot at a life for themselves and their family tomorrow than they had yesterday.

And all of this brings me to this conclusion -- I believe that President Obama is right to call for a Jobs Bill, and our Congress and U.S. Senate would be right (and smart) to pass every aspect they can find agreement on, and fast.

Read the complete story here, and register your comment.

 

Gallup-HOPE Index Support Builds as Bank of the West, E*TRADE, Meta Payment Systems and MasterCard Commit Additional Capital

Gallup-HOPE Index's matching partner commitments of $500K lay foundation for the dissemination of a national survey that will define the criteria to empower American youth

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nonprofit Operation HOPE (HOPE), a global leader in financial dignity, today announced increased 2011 support for the Gallup HOPE Index, a national survey measuring financial literacy and the economic energy of U.S. students, acknowledging $500K in additional contributions from Bank of the West, E*TRADE, Meta Payment Systems and MasterCard for the long-term project. The announcement comes on the morning of the inaugural Gallup HOPE Index Forum, held at Gallup's World Headquarters.

Initial seed capital for the Index included a $150K (multi-year) commitment from CoreLogic and a $100K commitment from Meta Payment Systems.  The additional commitments of $150K from Bank of The West, $125K from E*TRADE, $100K from MasterCard, $130K from Meta Payment Systems will be capital invested in the ongoing work of disseminating the Gallup-HOPE Index on a national basis. To ensure the survey's sustaining power, Gallup is investing $5M to audit and measure U.S. school students for the Gallup-HOPE Index, as its gift to American schools.