The "American Aspiration Tour" Makes Impact in Memphis

Financial Literacy Takes Center Stage to Help Create Economic Opportunity for All

MEMPHIS, Tenn., July 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman, and CEO John Hope Bryant will host a community meeting to discuss a “Business Plan for America,” a road map towards enhancing financial literacy, elevating financial dignity and empowerment, and advancing American economic strength and global competitiveness. The event will take place at 5 p.m. on July 30^that the Cossitt Library 33 S. Front Street, Memphis, TN, 38103. The event is free and open to the public. To register, click HERE.

Engaging a broad audience of business, civic, and community leaders — including Bryan Jordan, Chairman, President & CEO of First Horizon Bank — the discussion will center around what citizens and businesses in and around Memphis can do to enhance their financial literacy awareness. This includes the existing challenges and potential opportunities through increased financial education and access to resources for homeownership, small businesses, and building generational wealth.

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. The events will focus on connecting (and reconnecting) the aspiration of all Americans so they may fully thrive in the largest and greatest economy in the world. Data suggests that much of the country is living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little or no savings, growing debt, and a sentiment of being “on the outside looking in” at the promise of the American Dream.

Operation HOPE’s Community Credit Index reveals vast differences in credit scores, homeownership rates, and employment among Memphians. Positively, Memphians who participate in Operation HOPE’s free programs experience:

Average beginning credit score: 594 (vs. 698 national average)
Average increase in credit score: +38 points
Median reduction of debt: –$1,493
Median increase in savings: +$1,600

“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.”

“Just as Memphis’ history weaves together the cultural heritage of the Mississippi Delta with the indomitable spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, our American Aspiration Tour will connect to this legacy with intention and action,” said Bryant. “We look forward to working with Mayor Young, business leaders and other partners in the pursuit of elevating and empowering all Memphians through financial literacy.”

The goals of the American Aspiration Tour include to:

Create a realistic framework designed to achieve meaningful and impactful “needle-moving”; change in local communities and across the country;
Discuss how best to educate youth, our communities, entrepreneurs and America’s workforce with the tools of financial literacy can be a catalyst to help improve lives, strengthen communities and empower dreams;
Promote the understanding that financial literacy is not a fad, but rather a powerful movement that is taking hold in both “the suites and the streets.” This effort will help people regain hope in the American Dream and work towards achieving financial literacy and economic dignity;
Obtain essential input and suggestions from diverse communities, 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;
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.

The American Aspiration Tour, with the support of Mayor Young and others, aims to change this trajectory, to reignite hope for all Americans. The tour kicked off in Atlanta, GA with Mayor Andre Dickens with other cities slated in the coming weeks. Mr. Bryant will continue to engage with prominent elected officials, business executives, media, and community leaders for a series of intimate, provocative conversations on what is notably the “civil rights issue of this generation” – financial literacy for all.

NOTE TO MEDIA: Event images and video available here.

About the American Aspiration Tour

Launched in 2024 by John Hope Bryant and a group of dedicated and forward-thinking civic, business, and community leaders, the American Aspiration Tour aims to connect (and reconnect) the aspirations of all Americans so they may fully thrive in the largest and greatest economy in the world. The tour intends to take this message to and seek input from both the “streets and the suites,” to change the trajectory of our economy and 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 to create a clear, compelling, and actionable Business Plan for America. Additional information can be found at Operation HOPE American Aspiration Tour.

About Operation HOPE

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.

Contact Information

Operation HOPE

Kevin Boucher, 213-479-7833

[email protected]

Lalohni Campbell, 404-593-7145

[email protected]