photo by Joe Rada
First HOPE Inside location in the state of Alabama will be at a Birmingham branch of Regions Bank.
John Hope Bryant’s plan to rebuild families, neighborhoods and cities is really quite simple.
“We’re going to move credit scores up 100 points and watch neighborhoods take off,” Bryant said.
The founder, Chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE, Bryant joined Regions Financial President, Chairman and CEO Grayson Hall and Protective Life Corp. Chairman, President and CEO John D. Johns on Jan. 23 at Regions headquarters in Birmingham to announce the first commitment for HOPE Inside locations in the state of Alabama.
“This is about helping people succeed financially to make our community stronger,” said Hall. “Financial education gives people the knowledge and information they need to make decisions that will benefit themselves and their families.”
The first HOPE Inside location in Alabama will be housed in the Regions Bank Five Points South branch near downtown Birmingham. HOPE Inside offices offer free adult financial education, individual financial counseling guidance and financial disaster recovery workshops to people who seek to build personal wealth or protect assets from disasters. Through the new HOPE Inside partnership, Operation HOPE will be able to provide customized, one-on-one financial education to more people throughout the Birmingham area.
“Operation HOPE is a global leader in helping individuals and families build financial capacity and achieve financial dignity through their strong financial literacy programs,” said John D. Johns, CEO, Protective Life Corporation. “We are pleased to partner with Regions to bring the HOPE Inside program to Alabama, and we are excited about the impact this program will have in our community.”
Through education, Bryant said, people can reclaim their financial dignity while effectively altering a rising high school dropout rate.
“Kids drop out of high school for a simple reason: They don’t think education is relevant,” Bryant said. “We’re going to plug the aspiration socket back in the wall.”
Bryant said Regions and Protective Life have played key roles in funding and support in getting HOPE Inside to Birmingham, noting that Operation HOPE asked for one Birmingham location and Regions instead provided two. The second one will be in Woodlawn.
A financial advisor to three U.S. presidents, Bryant said his ties to Birmingham go back to his mother, a Birmingham native who reared him in Los Angeles.
He said the problems of lower-income residents of Birmingham are universal to those across the country, regardless of race or background.
“If we can fix it in Birmingham, then we can fix it in Detroit and we can fix it in the South Side of Chicago, and we can fix it so that people in South Central Los Angeles have hope,” Bryant said.
