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I am so very excited to recognize our founding signature partner in the HOPE Inside vision, SunTrust Banks, once again for their leadership here.

Not only did they open the first half dozen or more HOPE Inside locations with us, from Atlanta to Memphis, Tennessee, to Washington, DC, opening up a ‘new approach’ to serving underserved communities for banking and business overall — now they have made yet another landmark commitment to community.

The bank recently made a $400,000 commitment to support the creation of the national platform (read: not just benefiting SunTrust Banks exclusively) to innovate, create and stand up the first ever Financial Literacy Professional Certification Model for professionals in the financial industry.

It is powered by our partnership with Kaplan University, as well as the HOPE Office of Innovation, Research & Assessment, and will be operationalized finally on the ground, in something we call HOPE Inside Certified Plus.

HOPE Inside is effectively, our HOPE Financial Wellbeing Coaches in bank branches and other locations.

HOPE Inside Certified Plus are HOPE training financial professionals, to operate within their own locations and environments.

These select locations will then be ‘certified’ by HOPE and Kaplan University, through the on the ground engagement of these professionals in their own communities.

This platform will significantly extend and expand the ‘reach’ of HOPE ‘silver rights’ empowerment work, on the ground, nationally, in underserved communities that matter.

The first clients for HOPE Inside Certified Plus are of course, SunTrust Banks, and Union Bank (in California).  More are already on the way.

A special thank you to SunTrust Chairman and CEO Bill Rogers, SunTrust Foundation President David Fuller, our bank relationship manager Jerome Lienhard, CEO of SunTrust Mortgage, SunTrust Chief Marketing Officer Susan Somersille JohnsonChris Geganto and others there at the bank. The bank is also a prominent Member of Operation HOPE. See the complete list of HOPE Members here.

This bank truly is ‘lighting the way to financial wellbeing.’  It is their core belief.

Let’s go…

John Hope Bryant

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