People may have not had a clue what I was talking about in November, 2013, when I first unveiled my plans for and around Project 5117. To some, I am sure I sounded completely crazy, with my vision for a nation of underserved communities empowered.
Today, as of this date, we have pledges, commitments and opened locations within the Project 5117 portfolio for community empowerment — totally more than 260 location units.
To put this into proper context, for the first 23+ years of HOPE, we opened just about 24 locations. Since that November, 2013, announcement at our HOPE Global Forum Annual Meeting, we have pledges, commitments and actual opened locations totaling more than 260 across the nation.
Project 5117 includes:
HOPE Business In A Box Academies
HOPE B- Business Compact Schools
The flagship for this national (and in time, global) movement is our HOPE Inside@Ebenezer, which is the moral home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The best is yet to come.
Stay tuned, stand by, and be prepared to play a role in the growing power and influence of the ‘silver rights’ movement. Get in, where you believe you fit in. There is room in our movement for everyone.
John Hope Bryant