POCATELLO - "Totally state wide we're looking at 406 million dollars," says Department of Health and Welfare Region 6 Director Nick Arambarri.

Through the federal stimulus funds, these millions of dollars are made available to the Department of Health and Welfare.

"It's crucial for the families that need assistance," says Arambarri.

It's especially crucial for families that are part of benefits programs, which are impacted the most during economic hard times.

"We've seen a 30% increase in the numbers of families applying for food stamps over the last year," he says.

Because of the increase, Health and Welfare is receiving 64 million dollars for the food stamp program alone, allowing them to increase the amount an average family gets, a 14% increase for each family.

"It also helps by being able to give families on food stamps more benefits so they can use their dollars for other things which in turn helps the economy."

What also helps the economy is Health and Welfare's weatherization program.

"We can pay for families to get weatherization, to get upgraded in their furnaces, to repair old furnaces, to upgrade on water heaters and so on," says Arambarri.

Not only are families benefiting from this, but also businesses in that related area, bringing more money into the community.

"So that helps the family it helps them in the long run with their heating bills but it also provides funding coming in for people who do that type of work," he says.

Although there are hold backs in regional programs, these federal funds are a big help for the department as more and more people are turning to them.

"there are families that probably haven't received benefits from the state of Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in the past but because of the economic times they're facing unemployment loss of jobs and are looking for assistance."

If you are in need of assistance, Health and Welfare has a program called Navigation.

The staff specializes helping families in crisis. Whether it's personal, medical, or financial, providing resources for each family.

If you would like more information you can go to the Newslinks section of our website.