LOS ANGELES - Operation HOPE, Inc. (OHI), launches Banking on Our Future Across America 2005 -- "Financial Literacy as America's First 'Silver Right' in the 21st Century," a 13-city financial literacy marathon, to bring support of its efforts in financial education for youth in underserved communities, to expand awareness of its award-winning financial literacy program, and to launch the new on-line curriculum www.bankingonourfuture.org. With a goal to educate 16,000 youth from April 12th-June 30th, OHI also plans to celebrate the 160,000th youth educated. A thousand HOPE Corps members will be recruited to deliver these results.

With widespread success in many major U.S. markets through public/private partnerships, Operation HOPE has educated 143,000 children at more than 500 schools and community-based organizations with its program Banking on Our Future. Launched in 1996, Banking on Our Future has brought over 2,500 volunteer banker-teachers into classrooms to teach young people practical money management skills, while inspiring them to take control of their financial futures. It is the only face-to-face financial literacy program taught year round in public schools at no cost to schools. Banking on Our Future is a winner of the Oprah's Angel Network award and the U.S. Treasury Department's John Sherman Award for financial literacy excellence. The program teaches four core modules: about the basics of banking, how to open and maintain a checking and savings account, the power of credit, and basic investments.

Ambassador Andrew Young kicked off Banking on Our Future Across America 2005 in Atlanta on April 12th during "A Day of HOPE." This financial literacy campaign, aimed at empowering the upcoming generations of inner-city youth, features a series of executive teaching sessions from April 12th to June 30th. The Honorable Andrew Young, Atlanta's former mayor and acclaimed civil rights activist, is the national spokesperson for Los Angeles-based Operation HOPE, a nonprofit organization that has pioneered national financial literacy and economic empowerment programs in inner cities across the U.S.

About Operation HOPE:
Operation HOPE, Inc. (OHI) (www.operationhope.org, www.bankingonourfuture.org, and www.hopecoalitionamerica.org), is America's first nonprofit social investment bank and a national provider of financial literacy and economic empowerment programs. Through ongoing collaborations and long-term partnerships with leading government, private sector, and community interests, OHI works to bring self-sufficiency and a sustained spirit of revitalization to America's inner-city communities. OHI's HOPE Centers, a growing network of inner-city banking centers, have created more than 800 new homeowners and small business owners, more than $125 million in funded loans, and more than $210 million in commitments for homeownership and small business loans from their 250 bank and corporate partners.

Calendar of Teaching Sessions

April 19th
DETROIT, MI
Golightly Career & Technical Center
SPEAKERS: John Bryant, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Operation HOPE; Glenn
C. Hansen, Sr. VP & Branch Manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
- Detroit Branch; and Shirley Stancato, President & CEO, New Detroit

June 6 (tentative)
BOSTON, MA
Woodrow Wilson Middle School

April 28th
PHILADELPHIA, PA
Leidy Elementary School

WASHINGTON DC
Peninsula Elementary

May 17th
NEW YORK CITY
PS 282 - Park Slope Elementary School

May 24th
CHICAGODoolittle School

May 26th
BALTIMORE, MD
Dickey Hill Elementary/Middle School

June 1st
LOS ANGELES, CA
Thomas Bradley
Envrionmental Science and Humanities

June 2nd
ANAHEIM, CA
Westmont Elementary School

June 7th
OAKLAND, CA
Fruitvale Elementary School

June 9th
PORTLAND, CA

June 14th
Malcolm X Elementary School

June 30th
WASHINGTON, DC
Launch of DC HOPE Center

Operation HOPE, Inc.

Operation HOPE, Inc.

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