American Aspiration Tour Makes an Impact in Memphis

Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and
CEO John Hope Bryant host Community Meeting

 

26 July 2024. Memphis, Tenn. Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Operation HOPE founder, CEO and Chairman John Hope Bryant will host a community meeting to discuss a Business Plan for America, which is a road map towards enhancing financial literacy, elevating financial dignity and empowerment and advancing American economic strength and global competitiveness.

Engaging a broad audience of business, civic and community leaders, the discussion will center around what the citizens and business in and around Memphis can do to enhance their awareness of the challenges of and opportunities possible by working towards universal financial literacy.

 

As an outgrowth of Mr. Bryant’s national bestselling book, “Financial Literacy for All” (Wiley, April 2024), the meeting in Memphis is part of a nationwide American Aspiration Tour which is focused on connecting (and reconnecting) the aspiration of all Americans so that they may fully thrive in the largest and greatest economy in the world. Much of the country is living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little or no savings, increasing debt and on the outside looking in at the American Dream of prosperity and opportunity for everyone.

“Memphis has an historic role in the fight for civil rights,” said John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Operation HOPE. “I am delighted that this history continues today as Mayor Young and the citizens of Memphis recognize that financial literacy is an essential Silver Rights issue of this generation and is essential for maintaining and improving the financial knowledge and dignity of their city and the economic wellbeing of all Americans”

 

This American Aspiration Tour is intended to change this trajectory, to reignite aspiration and hope for all Americans. The tour will be stopping in cities and communities across the country, speaking with prominent elected officials, like Memphis Mayor Paul Young, business executives, media and community leaders for a series of intimate, provocative, conversations on what we consider the “civil rights issue of this generation” financial literacy for all.”

“We are excited to host the tour and help facilitate this important discussion,” stated Memphis Mayor Paul Young. “Memphis’ role as America’s largest majority black city requires us to do more on this front; we must find more ways to foster wealth-building and financial literacy throughout our community.”

 

###

Additional Background Information:

The goals of the tour are to:

1.   Create a realistic framework that is designed to achieve meaningful and impactful / “needle moving” change in our local communities and across our country;

2.  Discuss how best to educate our kids, our communities, our entrepreneurs and America’s workforce with the tools of financial literacy can be catalyst to improve lives, strengthen communities and empower dreams;

3.  Promote the understanding that financial literacy is not a fad or a trend but is a powerful movement that is taking hold in both the suites and the streets to help make Americans regain the American Dream and work towards achieving financial literacy and economic dignity;

4. Obtain essential input and suggestions from people like the citizens of Memphis to ensure that the Plan resonates with their needs, dreams, hopes, and desires for a better and more equitable future;

5.  Identify the steps that individuals, communities, businesses and government leaders can take daily to work towards a more stable and secure financial future of Americans and America.

 

Launched in 2024, by John Hope Bryant and a group of dedicated and forward thinking civic, business, and community leaders, the American Aspiration Tour is about connecting (and reconnecting) the aspiration of all Americans so that they may fully thrive in the largest and greatest economy in the world.   The tour is intended to take this message to and seek input from both the “streets and the suites”, to change the trajectory of our economy, and to reignite aspiration and hope for all Americans. The Tour will stop in cities and communities across the country, speaking with prominent elected officials, business executives, media and community leaders for a series of intimate, provocative, conversations on to create a clear, compelling and actionable Business Plan for America.

Additional information may be found at (https://operationhope.org/american-aspiration-tour/ INSERT LINK TO AMERICAN ASPIRATION TOUR WEBSITE when it goes live)

Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil rights to “silver rights” with the mission of making free enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved—disrupting poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults across the nation. Through its community uplift model, HOPE Inside, which received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by American Banker magazine, Operation HOPE has served more than 4 million individuals and directed more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into disenfranchised communities—turning check-cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage consumers, and uncertain disaster victims into financially empowered disaster survivors. For more information: OperationHOPE.org. Follow the HOPE conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

Additional information may be found at www.operationhope.org

Operation HOPE
Kevin Boucher, 213-479-7833
[email protected]

City of Memphis Media Contact

Arlenia Cole, [email protected]