WHO:
Pat Fehring, President and CEO, Level One Bank
Ned Staebler, CEO, TechTown
Dr. M. Roy Wilson, President, Wayne State University
John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Operation HOPE
WHAT:
A ribbon-cutting event for HOPE Inside TechTown. Operation HOPE has partnered with Level One Bank, Wayne State University, and business innovation hub, TechTown Detroit, to open a new HOPE Inside location in Detroit. The HOPE Inside office will provide credit and money management coaching, free to clients, to help them take control of their money and create a more secure financial future.
WHEN:
Wed., October 12, 2016
Reception | 4:00 p.m.
Program | 5:00 p.m.
Remarks – Pat Fehring,
Remarks – Ned Staebler
Remarks – Dr. M. Roy Wilson
Keynote – John Hope Bryant
WHERE:
TechTown
440 Burroughs Street
Detroit, MI 48202
What is HOPE Inside?
The HOPE Inside model has allowed private financial institutions to scale, and sustainably package and deliver, financial literacy and empowerment programming, free to the client. HOPE Inside had its genesis in bank branches, but widespread market adoption continues to bring sponsored offices to government facilities, grocery stores, hospitals, college campuses, and other community locations, including, Whole Foods, Hyatt Hotels, Detroit Medical Center, and Atlanta Public Safety Headquarters, so the programs can be accessed by everyone.
Today, there are 50 existing HOPE Inside locations across the nation, and commitments for more than 250 new offices within the next 18 months. With strategic banking partners, including, SunTrust Banks, Bank of the West, Fifth Third Bank, Mutual of Omaha, Wells Fargo, BB&T, First Tennessee Bank, Fulton Bank, CIT, MetaBank, First National Bank, Banco Popular, PNC, Level One Bank, Regions Bank, and Cathay Bank, Operation HOPE is delivering financial empowerment to communities that need it most.
Staffed by Operation HOPE Financial Wellbeing Coaches, HOPE Inside offices provide clients with the fundamentals to build their own businesses, raise their credit scores, buy homes, or simply make better decisions with the money they have. Programs include credit and money management coaching, home buyer counseling, and entrepreneurship training. Every HOPE Inside holds consumer credit counseling certification, CFPB, FDIC, U.S. SBA, HUD, EITC, and FEMA applications and partnerships. Through the HOPE 700 Credit Score Communities initiative, the focus on raising client credit scores to 700 is at the foundation of all HOPE Inside programming.
About Level One Bank
Level One Bank is a full-service, 5-Star BauerFinancial rated commercial and consumer bank headquartered locally in Farmington Hills, Michigan with assets of approximately $1.0 billion. It currently operates ten full-service banking centers located throughout the Metro Detroit region. Level One Bank’s success has been recognized both locally and nationally as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) ‘Community Lender of the Year’ and ‘Export Finance Lender of the Year’, one of SNL Financial’s ‘Top 100 Performing Community Banks’, Inc. Magazine’s list of 5,000 ‘Fastest Growing Private Companies in America’, and one of Metro Detroit’s ‘101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work For’. Level One’s Commercial Division provides a complete menu of products including lines of credit, term loans, leases, commercial mortgages, SBA loans, Export-Import Financing and a full suite of Treasury Management services. The Consumer Division offers personal savings and checking accounts and a complete array of consumer loan products including residential mortgages, home equity, auto, and credit card services. Level One Bank offers a variety of online banking services and a robust mobile banking application for individuals and businesses. Level One Bank offers the sophistication of a big bank, the heart of a community bank, and the spirit of an entrepreneur. For more information, please visit www.levelonebank.com.
About TechTown
TechTown is Detroit’s most established business accelerator and incubator, offering a full suite of entrepreneurial services for both tech and neighborhood enterprises. TechTown helps startup and established businesses develop, launch and grow, while strengthening and diversifying the local economy. For more information, visit techtowndetroit.org.
About Wayne State University
Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 27,000 students.
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. Through its core programs, the nonprofit has provided financial dignity and economic empowerment to over 2.6 million individuals worldwide, and $2 billion in economic activity for the disenfranchised—turning check cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers into small business owners and minimum wage workers into living wage consumers. Project 5117 is HOPE’s multi-year four-pronged approach to combating economic inequality that aims to improve financial literacy, increase business role models and business internships for youth, and stabilize the American dream by boosting credit scores. Operation HOPE recently received its second consecutive 4-star charity rating for fiscal management and commitment to transparency and accountability by the prestigious non-profit evaluator, Charity Navigator—further establishing it as a best-in-class organization. For more information: www.OperationHOPE.org. Follow Operation HOPE on Facebook and Twitter @OperationHOPE.
Contact
Nicole Ransom
Marketing Specialist
Level One Bank
248-538-2183
nransom@levelonebank.com
Kristin Palm
Managing Director of Communications,
TechTown Detroit & Director of Communications,
Wayne State University Office of Economic Development
313.483-1326
kpalm@wayne.edu
Caryn I. Anderson
Director of Communications
Operation HOPE
404.941.2919 – office
213.309.2763 – mobile
caryn.anderson@operationhope.org