By Cynthia Gibson
Contributing Writer
CRENSHAW — Operation HOPE, in partnership, with U.S. Bank has announced the opening of HOPE Inside, a program offering access to free financial coaching services focusing on the economic empowerment of low- to moderate-income individuals, families and small business owners in underserved communities.
HOPE Inside will be located at the U.S. Bank Crenshaw location, 5760 Crenshaw Blvd.
The average resident credit score within the local 90043 zip code — where the U.S. Bank HOPE Inside Crenshaw office is located — is 664. The U.S. national credit score average is 698. In partnership with U.S. Bank, the goal of HOPE Inside is to improve local statistics through hands-on coaching, counseling and increased access to resources.
“Financial literacy is the civil rights issue of this generation,” said John Hope Bryant, president and founder of Operation HOPE. “As important as the right to vote is, and we all need to vote, I believe your credit score is as important as getting a four-year degree in college.
“Besides God and love, nothing changes your life more than increasing your credit score 120 points.”
HOPE Inside provides communities with free credit and money management education as well as one-on-one financial coaching with a trained and experienced financial coach. The HOPE Inside Crenshaw location is part of the bank’s recent program expansion into Los Angeles, Oakland and Orange County. Overall, U.S. Bank and Operation HOPE operate 10 locations across six states.
Small business coach Christopher Santiago will aim to boost business activity in the community through an eight-week business planning course, along with personalized coaching and workshops. Following the completion of the course, individuals and small businesses owners can schedule one-on-one sessions for a detailed analysis of credit, savings, and spending patterns. Business owners with and without a business plan will be evaluated to determine any business model deficiencies.
“I’ll keep asking more questions and peeling that onion back to determine the client’s short and long term goals,” Santiago said. “Once that is complete, I take it from there to determine options and solutions from the banking side.”
Santiago will conduct one-on-one sessions and business courses inside the U.S. Bank Crenshaw branch office and in the newly updated community room, located adjacent to the bank.
“Improving the Crenshaw branch community room and the addition of a HOPE Inside space is a way to honor and provide even more value to the community,” said Carl Jordan, California regional leader for branch and small business banking at U.S. Bank. “The updates provide additional resources and a meeting place that are part of the U.S. Bank access commitment, the bank’s long-term approach to help close the wealth gap for underserved communities.”
“The great thing about U.S. Bank’s partnership with Operation HOPE is that it’s client agnostic,” said Sekou Kaalund, co-head of consumer and business banking for U.S. Bank. “This is about serving communities. Operation HOPE, by leveraging the space that we have, can coach the participants that are not clients of U.S. Bank. This is less about them being a client, it’s more about making an impact in the community.”
Although Hope Inside is a new program for U.S. Bank Crenshaw, Operation HOPE’s partnership with the bank goes back 30 years. U.S. Bank serves participants without specific client profiles or minimum requirements. It also seeks to support small businesses by providing access to financial services through business access advisors and their business diversity lending program, which is operational across U.S. Bank’s 2,200 branches nationwide.
“Around the country, when you look at the wealth gap and wealth disparities, they’ve been persistent,” Kaalund said. “With this partnership, we’re focusing on closing wealth disparities across underserved communities, in particular, communities of color.”
Kaalund said increased credit scores in areas that have coaching will be one of the ways to measure success of the new program. The goal is to create more clients that are able to take advantage of U.S. Bank’s financial products and services because people have mastered their credit and are able to grow their business.
Bryant is proud of the $4.5 billion of capital deployed in communities of color through Operation HOPE’s three decades of service.
“Black America has never had in economic infrastructure,” Bryant said. “Ever. My mission through Hope Inside and our other programs is to unleash untapped human potential at scale. My mission is to become the Federal Reserve of the hood, to create an economic infrastructure for Black and brown people.”
Cynthia Gibson is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers.
