A local community action agency is getting hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to federal stimulus money.

The Community Action Partnership of Staunton, Augusta, and Waynesboro, or "CAP-SAW" will receive more than $592,000.

Matching funds from each area will bring the total amount to about $711,000 for the entire community.

The agency will be a public government organization with the goal of assisting low-income families and individuals with resources to become self-reliant.

Elizabeth Middleton, the director of Shenandoah Valley Social Services, helped present the news to Waynesboro City Council on Monday along with Carol Blair of the Office on Youth.

She says, "There will be additional funding for not only currently funded human services programs, but for potentially a number of other programs that can help people who have lost their jobs, been laid-off, or have suffered financially in any variety of ways because of the economic conditions. So it couldn't have been better news, and it couldn't have come at a better time."

The creation of CAP-SAW will also relieve the city council of deciding what agencies should continue getting funding.