In Sioux Falls, stimulus money has secured 14 different jobs. 

Lutheran Social Services received a grant of nearly half a million dollars to go to their Rural Mentoring program. The grant money helped create and save 3 different jobs.  For one KELOLAND woman, the federal funding helped save her from the effects of the recession.

"I started one week ago today,” Marla Richard said.

Marla Richard is the newest member of the Rural Mentoring Program.

"So far, everything is going very well.  I found everybody to be very helpful,” Richard said.

Adjusting to her new duties is going very smoothly considering Richard was unemployed for months.

"I worked for a company that did security systems for 13 years, and due to the economy, early in this part of this year, I was laid off,” Richard said.

Richard says her previous employer transferred her administrative duties to another corporate office.  As soon as this opportunity popped up, she went for it. Only after getting the job did Richard realize how directly the economy has impacted her.

"It just kind of made everything go around because that's what happned.  I was let off and I was rehired.  It was really a good thing for me,” Richard said.

Richard is now an administrative assistant, a position created by grants through the stimulus package.  And she's not the only person affected by the grant.  Director Michelle Madsen was hired on in February and says when the President approved the package, the money saved her job and the program.

"It wouldn't exist to the level that it does right now.  We would maybe patchwork it together, but to have the resources behind it, it would not be the way it is today,” Madsen said.

This grant ensures enough funding for the program until 2013. For more information on the stimulus package's impact on South Dakota visit recovery.gov.