In November, 2021, and early December, 2022, it was announced that the City of Atlanta had unanimously approved a vote to donate $2 million to Operation HOPE to create Child Savings Accounts for low wealth Kindergarten students of Atlanta Public Schools. This was an initiative of then Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, subsequently approved by the Atlanta City Council.
Building on this, in 2022 and moving forward, the Operation HOPE family are looking forward to working closely with new Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, as he frames out his larger vision for the City, and for our Atlanta. HOPE will follow Mayor Dickens and APS Superintendent Lisa Herring’s lead going forward as we root this work within the APS system.
Operation HOPE and Atlanta Public School are now fully engaged in advancing this decade long initiative to create ‘stakeholder citizens’ of and from our young people, at scale.
Full details and updates will follow from the direct partners in this initiative, both Operation HOPE and APS, but one of the aspects of the program is the encouragement of private sector donations to match the City’s commitment to create $50 Savings Accounts, as well as the new possibility of a matching $50 Investment Account. And this is where my wife Chaitra Dalton Bryant and I thought we could help, encourage others to lean in and to help.
Hopefully to inspire others to move and to engage, the Bryant Family Foundation has committed $12,500 to underwrite and pay for additional Children Savings (Bank) Accounts. Our new grant will provide for 250 additional Children’s Savings Accounts.
The best is yet to come. Stay tuned for more.
John Hope Bryant and Chaitra Dalton Bryant