With the Alberta economy's future up in the air and more lay-offs occurring, that means many families will look for some support from dedicated local resource centres in the province and Okotoks is no exception.

The Okotoks Family Resource Centre has seen a small increase of families calling their services to get through some tough times.

Coordinator at the resource centre Sherri Mullen says the centre is up to the task.

"We do see a cross section of residents and they come in with different issues and of course they're from different income levels as well," she says. "We have a 16% increase in clientel over the same period which is January through to October."

Mullen says they see families come in needing support in numerous areas of day to day life.

"We're seeing more people coming in with basic needs, wanting referrals for used mattresses or for food bank hampers," she says. "We are seeing more people requesting legal information and we had a spike also in people coming in looking for help with recreation costs."

Mullen says the Centre will take the appropriate amount of time to help families pull through in times of hardship.

"Our biggest service is information, support and referral, so we'll sit down with the family and we'll discuss where they're at and what the current issues are that they feel need addressing we are the source of information for what programs are available in the community or the government that may be able to help."

If you'd like to help the Resource Centre even further so they can continue to be a strong presence in the community and help during the holidays visit the link here.