There we were on the steps of the National Archives, in Washington, DC, and on the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s Freedman’s Bank, Joseph Otting, CEO of OneWest Bank showed up and made a bold leadership commitment.

JHB at OneWest HI

One West Bank pledged to help Operation HOPE stand up and open 100 HOPE Inside locations throughout Southern California.  This was wonderful to hear, but there is nothing like action to underscore a commitment of faith and words.

OneWest Bank

The recent official ribbon cutting of and for its first HOPE Inside, OneWest Bank location located in Northridge, California, One West Bank recently became a Member of Operation HOPE, committing $1 million to support our baseline work.

OneWest Bank HI awards

This is a commitment in words, deeds and resources at the highest level of engagement.

The CEO of OneWest Bank, Joseph Otting, and his senior team have been thoroughly engaged with me and my team throughout our work to stand up the first of several HOPE Inside locations.  The result has been a very successful partnership, with waiting lists for all program areas in the Northridge, California HOPE Inside office.

The small business and entrepreneurship classes are all at 100% capacity with a waiting list.

Best of all, by working closely with bank personnel and our HOPE clients alike, and focusing on raising credit scores to 700 through our HOPE 700 Credit Score Communities Initiative, we are bridging the gap between being unqualified and being bankable.

I commend OneWest Bank and Joseph Otting for ‘walking his talk.’  He said it. He did it.  And now we are delivering results, together.

Let’s go…

John Hope Bryant

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