SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Valerie Hill didn’t seem like the sort of person who needed financial help. She had a good job, a nice home and a daughter in private school. But after a divorce, a spate of illnesses and a death in her family, she found herself out of that home, overwhelmed by debt and struggling to get by.

Hill recently became the first person to seek help from Syracuse’s brand new Financial Empowerment Center. Since then, she’s dug her way out of debt and wants to tell anyone with money trouble to pick up the phone and ask for help.

Hill joined Mayor Ben Walsh and leaders from several community groups and non-for-profits Thursday morning to announce the opening of the city’s new Financial Empowerment Center.

The center offers free, one-on-one financial counseling to any city resident who needs it. That counseling focuses on reducing debt, increasing savings, improving credit scores and establishing bank accounts.

The FEC’s opening is a culmination of nearly two years worth of work and planning. The project began under former mayor Stephanie Miner and became a priority for Walsh when he took office last year.

“I don’t care who you are, at some point everyone has struggled financially and everyone has needed advice," Walsh said Thursday morning. "That’s what’s so powerful about this program. A lot of other programs are about financial literacy. We’re not teaching you how to open a bank account. We’re giving one on one counseling to look at your bills, identify your goals and hold your hand to work through those challenges.”

The center is funded by seed money from Cities for Financial Empowerment, a non-for-profit that operates similar centers in 26 cities across the country. Additional money comes from the Allyn Foundation and Home HeadQuarters.

Jonathan Mintz, the president of Cities for Financial Empowerment, was in Syracuse Thursday morning. He said individual counseling has proven much more effective than providing information or lectures about financial literacy.

“It’s not just a program, it’s a commitment of a new community service,” he said. “I think it’s a telling difference between teaching and helping. It’s like when you’re sick: You don’t need a website. You need a doctor."

For Valerie Hill, who is director of youth and family services for Syracuse Community Connections, the program helped turn her life around. Now, she wants people to know that this new service is available.

Hill is well educated and employed full time with a good salary. But after a series of devastating life events, she found herself buried in debt.

“I was in a financial crisis and I needed help,” she said. “It makes a great difference in being able to live and not just worry about paying bills or paying your family’s bills.”

She went through a divorce and lost her family home in the process. Her ex-husband took the car. Both of her parents became ill and needed hospital visits and, eventually, a nursing home. Then her sister died unexpectedly, leaving Hill to cover funeral costs.

Hill, once a picture of financial stability, found herself unable to pay bills and struggling to find a low-interest car loan or a good home to rent for her and her daughter. She maxed out her credit cards. She dipped into her retirement savings.

Valerie Hill was the first person to use Syracuse's new Financial Empowerment Center.

Hill called Thom Dellwo, a friend, for help. Dellwo was one of five counselors at the new Financial Empowerment Center who provide free guidance to anyone who asks.

Dellwo helped her restructure her loans and put her on a six-month plan for getting out of debt. They worked together to help Hill build a safety net in case she found herself in tough times like this again.

Now, Hill is sharing her story in an effort to help others and shed the stigma that often comes with money troubles.

“Sometimes people are prideful, especially when they’ve worked all their life and have money saved up. When something happens they don’t want people to know,” she said. “I want the world to know. If I’m going through it, someone else is going through it. And this is not anything to be ashamed of.”

Hill said she’s referred four of her co-workers to the Financial Empowerment Center. One woman, using help from the center, just bought her first home, Hill said.

The empowerment center has seven locations across the city, including an office at City Hall. Local community groups and non-for-profits are serving as referral sites for the center, connecting their clients with counselors.

To make an appointment with a counselor, call (315) 474-1939 or visit syrgov.net/fec.