History of Community Action

The “community action” concept was established by Congress with the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. That legislation —the cornerstone of President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty”—provided that new “community action agencies” should be established throughout the nation in order to

“… stimulate a better focusing of all available local, state, private and federal resources upon the goal of enabling low-income families and low-income individuals of all ages, in rural and urban areas, to attain the skills, knowledge and motivations and secure the opportunities needed for them to become self-sufficient.”

Though federal oversight and funding has changed over the succeeding years, Community Action Agencies (CAAs) continue today to be characterized by their primary catalytic mission—to make the entire community more responsive to the needs and interests of the poor by mobilizing resources and bringing about a greater sensitivity.

A significant responsibility of most CAAs today is to serve as the local administrative agency for a variety of federal- and state-funded assistance programs, including those for energy assistance, home weatherization, food banks, emergency shelters, and other general assistance programs funded by the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program.

Strengthened by their unique status among human services agencies, CAAs generally share the following core characteristics:

• They are broad in scope, cutting across all needs, population groups and community sectors to develop comprehensive solutions to poverty concerns.
  
• They are locally-controlled with a board of directors composed of elected public officials, private businessmen, and service recipients.
  
• They perform an “incubator” function, fostering the development of new programs and service-delivery models.
  
• They seek to collaborate with other human service agencies to avoid duplication of services and effectively advocate for the interests of all low-income residents.