Tallahassee Business Journal SPEC I A L R EPORT
Cary McCord, upon his release from prison, finished first in his class at a trucking school at Tallahassee Community College. He is saving up to start his own trucking business.
H3LP IS AT HAND Program helps clients get their feet back on the ground BY STEVE BORNHOFT
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WINTER 2020
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s a boy, Cary McCord was fascinated by large truck, and as a teen, he had a desire to become a driver. “Unfortunately, I was bad about hangin’ around with the wrong people,” he said. At ı7, McCord was convicted on a charge of armed robbery. He would spend 20 years and six months in prison. “He got out and knew nothing about cell phones or computers, but he wanted to get something going,” said Chuck White, the founder and director of H3LP Florida Employment Services, which works in close association with the Kearney Center in Tallahassee. McCord received information about H3LP — the “3” in its name stands for “Educate, Employ, Empower” — upon
leaving prison. His mother had resided for a time at the Kearney Center, which works with homeless people, and knew White. McCord, himself, was living in a transitional housing facility and paying rent with money he earned on work release while in prison when he approached White. “I’m blessed and fortunate to have met a man like Mr. Chuck, who is not just doing a job, but really wants to help people,” McCord said. White, 70, was a co-founder of the Kearney Center and worked as an administrator there. He established the H3LP program, given a strong desire to work one on one with center clients and to establish relationships with them. Photography by ALEX WORKMAN