Internationally recognized social entrepreneur and Operation HOPE founder John Hope Bryant to speak at Berea College Tuesday, Nov. 14

Leader of the “silver rights” movement across America, cited by the last four sitting U.S. presidents for his work to empower low-wealth communities across America and an active advisor to the past two sitting presidents, John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation HOPE, will speak at Berea College Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel.

The event is free and open to the public

In his presentation “Onward with Hope,” Hope will chronicle his nation-wide efforts to eradicate poverty in the 21st century through economic empowerment and financial literacy, an innovative social justice effort he calls the “silver rights” movement, as well as provide his vision for the future.

Bryant founded Operation HOPE on May 5, 1992, immediately following the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, the worst urban civil unrest in U.S. history. Bryant organized a Bankers Bus Tour to take financiers through the effected area, resulting in the funding of the first loan to rebuild a business post-riot.

Since that time, Bryant and Operation HOPE have raised more than $65 million in grant funds and more than $250 million in lending commitments for low-wealth homeownership and minority small business ownership and entrepreneurship nationwide. In turn, Operation HOPE has attracted 300 leading private-sector companies with $4.5 trillion in assets between them, more than 1,000 non-profit organizations and schools and more than 100 government agencies as partners in its work. “Silver rights” campaigns and programs have been established in 14 states
and 24 cities, as well as a global “silver rights” campaign to teach children dignity.

The five-year goals of Operation HOPE are to educate five million low-wealth children in financial literacy, fund $1 billion in low-wealth homeownership, attract 1,000 of the world’s leading companies as partners, and to spark a movement around “silver rights.”

Bryant’s other achievements, nationally and internationally, are numerous. In addition to being a businessman and author of “Banking On Our Future,” a book on youth and family financial literacy, he is a former United Nations goodwill ambassador to the United States and a local partner with former President Clinton and his foundation in efforts to educate every child in Harlem, New York in financial literacy and to provide financial assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina. In 2004, President George Bush appointed Bryant to a four-year term on the non-partisan U.S. Community Development Advisory Board for the CDFI Fund at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Other efforts include founding the first in a national network of inner-city banking centers, called HOPE Centers, serving low-wealth communities, as well as founding the HOPE Coalition in response to the attacks of September 11. The HOPE Coalition is known as America’s “economic Red Cross,” and helped provide economic triage services to more than 10,000 Katrina victims, helping them receive more than $10 million in federal tax refunds.

Bryant has won over 400 awards and citations for his work to educate, inspire and empower low-wealth communities nationwide. At the 2004 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bryant was nominated to the Forum of Young Global Leaders, “a community of extraordinary leaders who are 40 years old or younger, clearly exceptional on a global level, and will have a visible opportunity to have significant impact on world affairs. For more about John Hope Bryant and Operation Hope, visit www.operationhope.org

Bryant’s lecture is co-sponsored by Berea College Convocations and the Entrepreneurship for the Public Good programs at Berea. For more information, visit www.berea.edu/convo and www.berea.edu/epg