The Opportunity for a Second Chance – Memphis, TN

“I was recently released after doing 20 years in prison. I was looking for a chance and an opportunity,” Glenn Claiborne says. “But you know, so many times after being incarcerated you get to feel like you don’t matter.”

But when Claiborne enrolled in classes offered by Hope Credit Union and Economic Opportunity (an organization that equips those who have been incarcerated with the skills they need to find employment), he saw that he did matter. Economic Opportunity helped Claiborne find a job as a supervisor with Barnhart Crane and Rigging, while HOPE helped Claiborne learn to manage his finances.

“HOPE helped with teaching us about savings and checking accounts, which is a big deal because most guys like myself who have been incarcerated, we’ve never had bank accounts of any fashion,” Claiborne says. “A lot of us have never had a paycheck.”

In HOPE, Claiborne also found a group of people who believed in and supported his efforts to make a fresh start.

“At HOPE, I’m not a number. I know the tellers by name, and they know me by name. It makes me feel like I’m important and I matter.

“If you want to go where you matter and where somebody is going to help you, you need to go to HOPE,” Claiborne continues. “HOPE makes me feel like I belong, like they know me. Not where I’ve been or what I’ve done, but the Glenn they see today.”