Financial Literacy Takes Center Stage to Help
Create Economic Opportunity for All
MEMPHIS,
Tenn., July 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Memphis Mayor Paul
Young and Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman, and CEO
John Hope Bryant will host a
community meeting to discuss a "Business Plan for
America," a road map towards enhancing financial literacy,
elevating financial dignity and empowerment, and advancing American
economic strength and global competitiveness. The event will take
place at 5 p.m. on July 30th at the Cossitt Library 33 S.
Front Street, Memphis, TN, 38103.
The event is free and open to the public. To register, click
HERE.
![From the best-selling author of "Up from Nothing," "Love Leadership" and "How the Poor Can Save Capitalism," John Hope Bryant's new book: "Financial Literacy for All" delivers a powerful resource for everyday Americans seeking to build a stronger financial future. Available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble. and Walmart. (PRNewsfoto/Operation HOPE, Inc.) From the best-selling author of "Up from Nothing," "Love Leadership" and "How the Poor Can Save Capitalism," John Hope Bryant's new book: "Financial Literacy for All" delivers a powerful resource for everyday Americans seeking to build a stronger financial future. Available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble. and Walmart. (PRNewsfoto/Operation HOPE, Inc.)](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2375055/FL4A_Book_Cover_Art2.jpg)
Engaging a broad audience of business, civic, and community
leaders — including Bryan Jordan,
Chairman, President & CEO of First Horizon Bank — the
discussion will center around what citizens and businesses in and
around Memphis can do to enhance
their financial literacy awareness. This includes the existing
challenges and potential opportunities through increased financial
education and access to resources for homeownership, small
businesses, and building generational wealth.
As an outgrowth of Mr. Bryant's national bestselling book,
"Financial Literacy for All" (Wiley, April 2024), the meeting in Memphis is part of a nationwide American
Aspiration Tour. The events will focus on connecting (and
reconnecting) the aspiration of all Americans so they may fully
thrive in the largest and greatest economy in the world. Data
suggests that much of the country is living paycheck-to-paycheck,
with little or no savings, growing debt, and a sentiment of being
"on the outside looking in" at the promise of the American
Dream.
Operation HOPE's Community Credit Index reveals vast
differences in credit scores, homeownership rates, and employment
among Memphians. Positively, Memphians who participate in Operation
HOPE's free programs experience:
- Average beginning credit score: 594 (vs. 698 national
average)
- Average increase in credit score: +38 points
- Median reduction of debt: -$1,493
- Median increase in savings: +$1,600
"We are excited to host the tour and help facilitate this
important discussion," stated Memphis Mayor Paul
Young. "Memphis' role as
America's largest majority Black city requires us to do more on
this front; we must find more ways to foster wealth-building and
financial literacy throughout our community."
"Just as Memphis' history
weaves together the cultural heritage of the Mississippi Delta with
the indomitable spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, our American
Aspiration Tour will connect to this legacy with intention and
action," said Bryant. "We look forward to working with Mayor Young,
business leaders and other partners in the pursuit of elevating and
empowering all Memphians through financial literacy."
The goals of the American Aspiration Tour
include to:
- Create a realistic framework designed to achieve meaningful and
impactful "needle-moving"; change in local communities and across
the country;
- Discuss how best to educate youth, our communities,
entrepreneurs and America's workforce with the tools of financial
literacy can be a catalyst to help improve lives, strengthen
communities and empower dreams;
- Promote the understanding that financial literacy is not a fad,
but rather a powerful movement that is taking hold in both "the
suites and the streets." This effort will help people regain hope
in the American Dream and work towards achieving financial literacy
and economic dignity;
- Obtain essential input and suggestions from diverse
communities, like the citizens of Memphis, to ensure that the Plan resonates
with their needs, dreams, hopes, and desires for a better and more
equitable future;
- Identify the steps that individuals, communities, businesses
and government leaders can take daily to work towards a more stable
and secure financial future of Americans.
The American Aspiration Tour, with the support of Mayor Young
and others, aims to change this trajectory, to reignite hope for
all Americans. The tour kicked off in Atlanta, GA with Mayor Andre Dickens with other cities slated in the
coming weeks. Mr. Bryant will continue to engage with prominent
elected officials, business executives, media, and community
leaders for a series of intimate, provocative conversations on what
is notably the "civil rights issue of this generation" – financial
literacy for all.
NOTE TO MEDIA: Event images and video available
here.
About the American Aspiration Tour
Launched in 2024 by
John Hope Bryant and a group of
dedicated and forward-thinking civic, business, and community
leaders, the American Aspiration Tour aims to connect (and
reconnect) the aspirations of all Americans so they may fully
thrive in the largest and greatest economy in the world. The tour
intends to take this message to and seek input from both the
"streets and the suites," to change the trajectory of our economy
and reignite aspiration and hope for all Americans. The tour will
stop in cities and communities across the country, speaking with
prominent elected officials, business executives, media, and
community leaders for a series of intimate, provocative
conversations to create a clear, compelling, and actionable
Business Plan for America. Additional information can be found at
Operation HOPE American Aspiration Tour.
About Operation HOPE
Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil
rights to "silver rights" with the mission of making free
enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved—disrupting
poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults
across the nation. Through its community uplift model, HOPE Inside,
which received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by
American Banker magazine, Operation HOPE has served more than 4
million individuals and directed more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into
disenfranchised communities—turning check-cashing customers into
banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers
into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage
consumers, and uncertain disaster victims into financially
empowered disaster survivors. For more
information: OperationHOPE.org. Follow the HOPE
conversation
on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Additional information may be found
at www.operationhope.org.
Contact Information
Operation HOPE
Kevin Boucher, 213-479-7833
kevin.boucher@operationhope.org
Lalohni Campbell, 404-593-7145
la@persemediagroup.com
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SOURCE Operation HOPE, Inc.