There's a revolution, of sorts, happening in the Metro East. A Financial revolution.
An entrepreneur and businessman with ties to East St. Louis wants to make you smarter about money. 5 On Your Side took a walk with the man behind the idea to show us how it's possible for anyone in our area.
John Hope Bryant knows East St. Louis well.
“My grandmother owned her own home on Piggott Street,” he said as he strolled along South 19th Street.
The once-thriving city is now known more for crumbling buildings and decaying properties than it is for industry.
“The challenge here is that, as far as I can remember this has been a 500, 400, maybe 600 credit score neighborhood. Well, that effects everything,” said Bryant. “There's no skyscrapers here. So how do you dream about working in an office tower? How do you dream about being a dentist or a lawyer or a doctor or a businessman or businesswoman or entrepreneur when you don't see it?”
That's something Bryant wants to change. But his focus isn't just on east St. Louis. He wants to change the landscape of America by helping people better understand money. How to make it, how to access it and how to use it to change lives.
“That's an opportunity right there,” Bryant said, pointing to the long-closed Little Dunbar Confectionary near the corner of 19th and Piggott. “That should be an open business. If somebody had a 650 or 700 credit score and about $25,000 worth of capital, they could open up a shop there.
Through his non-profit Operation HOPE, Bryant is opening up shops of his own. The latest Hope Inside Center was launched Thursday at the Regions Bank at 4800 West Main Street in Belleville.
Click here to visit the center's Facebook page.
We asked what people will learn when they visit the center.
“We're going to do what the bank can't do. We're going to say yes to you. Now, you've got to do some work,” said Bryant. “That's empowerment. That's teaching you how to fish. Then the person says, ‘OK, what next?’ Once you say what's next, we've got you. Because now you've taken the driver seat in your life.”
Bryant says the free classes and coaching at the centers will open your eyes to much-needed lessons many never got.
"People aren't dumb, and they aren't stupid," he said. "It's what they don't know they don't know that's killing them."
A Hope Inside Center also operates in St. Louis at 1200 Market Street, Room 220.
