Ygl_vancouver_summit_2006Operation HOPE founder John Hope Bryant joins Young Global Leaders in Vancouver for Dignity Day.

Nine Local schools to benefit from phase I Global Dignity Teaching Tools curriculum introduced today.

Today The Forum of Young Global Leaders, part of the World Economic Forum, with Young Global Leader John Hope Bryant, Operation HOPE’s Founder and CEO, will introduce Global Dignity to nine area schools then share the experience at The Young Global Leaders Annual Summit in Vancouver, British Columbia. Through HOPE Global Initiatives, Bryant and Global Dignity co-founder and fellow YGL Professor Pekka Himanen will introduce Dignity Teaching Tools, a new curriculum focused on the dignity principles, self-sufficiency and lessons for living concepts designed to promote the importance of young people living a dignified life.

Jhb_talking_with_kids_at_king_georgeThe mission of the Global Dignity, also a partnership of the Forum of Young Global Leaders and HOPE Global Initiative, is to implement globally the universal right of every human being to lead a dignified life. This is a paradigm shift in thinking about our global challenges, a new language and a mindset to approach issues of poverty, peace, and progress.

"The best leaders recognize that they are in service to others, and likewise, in service to something higher and more important than self. This is the realization we reached following the YGL Summit in Zermatt, Switzerland last year. Later, more than 125 other Young Global Leaders joined in the signing of the Dignity Principles in Davos, Switzerland and the subsequent creation of Global Dignity (

www.globaldignity.org <http://www.globaldignity.org/

> ). By promoting Global Dignity we hope to bring self-sufficiency and empowerment to underserved areas all over the world," said John Hope Bryant.

The Dignity Teaching Tools will teach students dignity concepts and amongst other practical life tools, will utilize HOPE’s award-winning Banking on Our Future program as a model to illustrate self-reliance, financial empowerment, and dignity principles in action. Through the use of this teaching tool, students will learn how they can easily integrate these concepts into their everyday life. The model includes:

* The five Dignity Principles

* The five Senses of Dignity

* The ABC’s of Dignity

* Definition’s of Dignity

* "Life 101"

Global Dignity was Co-founded earlier this year by HRH Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway, Professor Pekka Himanen, University of Art & Design Helsinki and Visiting Professor at Oxford University, and John Hope Bryant from Operation HOPE, Inc. The Global Dignity is an autonomous, non-profit an non-partisan project linked to the 2020 process of the World Economic Forum where young global leaders from politics, business, academia, and civil society have joined together to work for the improvement of the state of the world and people.

The role of HOPE Global Initiatives is to promote and advocate the benefits of financial literacy, self reliance, economic empowerment and "silver rights" as a tool for vastly improving the quality of life in developing countries, with a particular focus on developing countries on the African continent. The role has expanded to serve underserved communities throughout the world.

About the Forum of Young Global Leaders

Young Global is comprised of leaders, aged 40 years and younger, committed to shaping the future. The Young Global Leaders include leaders from each of the seven geographic regions and from the worlds of politics, business, society, learning, arts and culture. Each year, around 200 Young Global Leaders are nominated to serve for a period of five years, ultimately forming a community of 1,111 by 2009. The Forum of Young Global Leaders was created by Professor Klaus Schwab in 2004 and acts in close cooperation with the World Economic Forum in their joint commitment to improving the state of the world.

Operation HOPE, Inc

Operation HOPE, Inc. is America’s first nonprofit social investment bank and a national provider of financial literacy and economic empowerment programs. It works to bring self-sufficiency and a sustained spirit of revitalization to America’s inner-city communities. The three key programs, which serve as the foundation for delivering HOPE’s financial literacy programs are HOPE Coalition America, Banking on Our Future, and neighborhood HOPE Centers. To date, HOPE has created more than 800 new homeowners and 250 small business owners, more than $125 million in funded loans, and more than $240 million in commitments for homeownership and small business loans from their 250 bank and corporate partners. Operation HOPE has helped thousands of Katrina victims with emergency financial counseling as well as helped thousands more through a partnership with former President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation to claim EITC benefits Katrina victims rightly deserve from the federal government. At the core of HOPE’s mission to eradicate poverty and empower the wealthless is a movement to establish "silver rights" or the right to financial literacy, access to capital, and equality of opportunity for the underserved. HOPE and its programs can be found online at

www.operationhope.org

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