Operation_HOPE_Logo_(New) 

Nonprofit’s Banking on Our Future Office in the Chicago Area Recipient of $25,000 Donation

 

LOS ANGELES – (October 13, 2009) – Nonprofit Operation HOPE (HOPE) Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant today announced Banking on Our Future received a $25,000 grant from Oprah’s Angel Network to target additional underserved youth in the Chicago area, making it the second time the organization has been recognized.

 

In 2002, HOPE was awarded Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award along with $100,000 for its work to help people rebuild their lives. Accepting the award, during Oprah’s live broadcast, Bryant vowed to bring an empowerment program benefiting youth to the Chicago area.

 

Bolstered by the additional support of Alliant Credit Union, TransUnion, Private Bank & Trust, Bank Popular, Chubb Insurance and National Futures Association, the Banking on Our Future, Chicago branch opened in 2003 prompted by a promise to Oprah. When accepting the Angel Network Use Your Life Award, Bryant pledged to bring youth financial literacy services to the area. Since then over 50,000 students in the Chicago area have been trained in the basics of checking, savings, credit and investment. Globally, the program has educated more than 400,000 students since 1996.

 

"Financial literacy is essential to effecting economic parity in America today. If you know better, you tend to do better. I am excited about the possibilities created when the best of the best come together to make a change in the community,” said Bryant, whose recent book, Love Leadership, outlines the value of virtues in an economic crisis. “Operation HOPE’s five basic principles continue to provide the foundation for our success: hope, dignity, understanding the language of money, cracking the code of capitalism and love leadership.”

 

Patricia Robles, Banking on Our Future Program Manager, added, "These funds will go a long way towards helping us deliver financial literacy education to the 5,700 Chicago Public youth we’ve identified this Fall. It will also enable us to provide services to some 500 youth living in different homeless Chicagoland shelters."

 

About Oprah’s Angel Network

Oprah’s Angel Network works around the globe to give people the chance to live their best lives. The Angel Network is a public charity that awards grants to organizations that are improving access to education, protecting basic rights, creating communities of support and developing the leaders of tomorrow. To learn more about Oprah’s Angel Network visit: www.oprahsangelnetwork.org.

 

Pin It on Pinterest