LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In continuing its mission to help under-resourced individuals build wealth globally, financial literacy and economic empowerment, nonprofit Operation HOPE, Inc. (HOPE) celebrated its 19th anniversary, announcing that it has cumulatively raised and directed nearly $1 billion in support of low-income communities in the U.S. and worldwide.
“We all know that the Civil Rights Movement was about giving people equality before the law. What many people don’t know is that Martin Luther King Sr. served on the board of a bank and that Martin Luther King Jr., along with HOPE Global Spokesperson Ambassador Andrew Young, believed that the next step in their movement was to integrate the financial system, giving everyone a fair chance at the American Dream,” said Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant, who serves on the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. “HOPE’s focus on ‘silver rights’ continues their work, taking it forward by providing people equal access to economic opportunities. As Ambassador Young always says, integrating the lunch counter was an important first step, giving people fair and reasonable access to capital - ‘integrating the dollar’ - is the next.”
Support for Operation HOPE and the Silver Rights Movement has enabled the nonprofit to help low-income communities rebuild after the Rodney King riots in South Los Angeles; aid the survivors of every major U.S. disaster in the past decade, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, with economic triage assistance; and assist victims of the mortgage crisis by helping homeowners raise their credit scores and delay or modify $406 million in subprime mortgage loans. Its work has allowed it to serve 1.4 million people and raise over $500 million on their behalf. Through Operation HOPE's Banking on Our Future curriculum, it has trained and mobilized over 13,000 HOPE Corps volunteers to teach approximately 550,000 youth in financial literacy and the language of money.
HOPE has expanded its mission globally by offering financial literacy and economic empowerment programs in South Africa and Haiti, and most recently Morocco. As an extension to its transnational mission, HOPE has launched the first Global Silver Rights Empowerment tool, the Wikia-Operation HOPE Global Money Initiative, with Wikia-HOPE, Morocco serving as the first country expansion. Through this initiative, HOPE will be planting the seeds of economic empowerment and self-reliance in dozens of countries in over 50 languages globally by providing downloadable financial literacy curriculum at no-cost at www.globalmoney.wikia.com.
With its mission to establish financial security and expand economic opportunity in underserved communities through financial literacy education and economic empowerment programs, HOPE seeks to improve the financial quality of life for underserved individuals and families, empowering them with a deeper understanding of the financial system.
About Operation HOPE, Inc.
Founded in 1992, social empowerment nonprofit Operation HOPE’s mission is to expand economic opportunity in under-resourced communities through financial literacy education. HOPE promotes "silver rights" – making free enterprise and capitalism relevant and effective for the underserved. Raising more than $500 million and directing and restructuring nearly $500 million more in mortgages and economic support from the private sector, for a total of approximately $1 billion in economic activity, HOPE seeks dignity and empowerment for all. Follow Operation HOPE at www.operationhope.org, www.twitter.com/operationhope, and www.facebook.com/operationhope.