From Overwhelmed to Empowered: Linda Hunter’s Path to Confidence

When Linda Hunter first stopped at the resource table inside MetroHealth’s Buckeye Health Center, she wasn’t looking for transformation. She was simply picking up flyers.

“I love that resource table,” she said. “It has a lot of information for the community, and I work with the community.” One brochure caught her eye: financial literacy classes. She asked about it, booked an appointment and walked into something she didn’t yet have a name for – hope.

At the time, life felt overwhelming. “I was financially stressed. I didn’t know which way to go,” Linda recalled. “But now I’m on a positive road of recovery, and I’m able to help somebody else.”

A Community Member Who Gives – and Finally Receives

Linda describes herself in many roles: a mom, a grandmother, a community person and someone who has always taken care of others. But when life shifted – when she became the full-time caregiver for her granddaughter after three brain surgeries – she had to stop working. Then the pandemic hit, and everything became harder. “Change happened in my life,” she says. “It was difficult… then COVID came, and things happened.”

For someone who prided herself on self-reliance, asking for help felt uncomfortable. “I was raised not to ask for help unless you really needed it,” she says. “When I began to feel needy, that didn’t feel right.” But she also knew she needed a new way forward.

Meeting Her Coach – “You Can Do It, Ms. Hunter”

Through the Buckeye Opportunity Center, Linda was connected to Financial Coach Renee Harris. “She’s patient – very patient – and she’s thorough,” Linda says. “There were times she told me, ‘Ms. Hunter, you can do it.’ I didn’t know I could do everything she was telling me I could do.”

Renee helped Linda understand budgeting, debt, due dates, grace periods and how to advocate for herself with creditors. Over time, Linda found herself asking the right questions over the phone – confidently. “Confidence is the key word,” she says. “I’m impressed with myself.”

Renee worked alongside Digital Navigator Tina Cavers, who helped Linda overcome her fear of smartphones, portals, passwords and online applications. “In my age bracket, we weren’t raised on this,” Linda says. “But I’m not as intimidated as I was when I started.”

Linda remembers the exact turning point: “Ms. Tina asked me nicely, ‘Are you going to do what I asked you to do?’ I went home and did it. When I came back, she said, ‘You did it, Ms. Hunter.’ And that’s when things started changing.”

Baby Steps, Big Changes

Linda describes her financial recovery as a process of “baby steps” – a slow, steady climb out of stress. “I couldn’t go from one to ten,” she says. “I needed to go from zero to one‑and‑a‑half.”

Those baby steps added up:

• She began budgeting seriously after hearing the word repeated throughout her four-week financial literacy classes.
• She started raising money by hosting yard sales and using online marketplaces.
• She learned to navigate digital systems for benefits, billing and resources.
• She built a financial binder, filled with lessons, worksheets and even children’s books about money, which she now uses with her grandkids.

The difference showed up in her household, too: “My son used to have to give me money,” she says. “Now he’ll call and ask, ‘Mom, what do you need?’ And I can say, ‘I’m okay. I’m good.’”

A Ripple Effect in the Neighborhood

Linda doesn’t just keep what she learned to herself. She shares it… everywhere. She talks about financial literacy with her New Image Block Association, her ministry partners and neighbors on her street. She encourages friends to attend classes. She’s even brought others to the Opportunity Center.

People noticed when she received home repairs through grants – grants she applied for with Renee’s help. “They’d ask, ‘How did you get that?’ And I tell them: the financial literacy class, the Buckeye Opportunity Center.”

For more information, please contact Greg Sanders, Vice President of Philanthropy, at 440‑592‑1319 or gsanders@metrohealth.org.