The Crucial Decision That Helped St. HOPE Refocus on Its Mission to Help Others Pursue Excellence

Posted by Kendall Fisher, Executive Producer and Host of The NetSuite Podcast
If you pay a visit to the Oak Park neighborhood outside of Sacramento, California, you’ll notice a bustling coffee shop and a beautifully renovated theater, students walking from Sacramento High School and people stopping in the Underground Bookstore.
But it wasn’t always this way.
Historically, Oak Park was an under-resourced community with high poverty and crime rates. The school system suffered and less than half the students from Sac High actually graduated.
That’s why former NBA player Kevin Johnson vowed he’d return one day. He knew he needed to make a difference in his hometown and help kids just like him create opportunities to succeed. In 1989, he fulfilled his promise, returning to Oak Park to create St. HOPE Academy, an afterschool program for 12 African-American boys at Sac High.