Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies

Community Action Agencies work to alleviate poverty and empower low-income families in their communities. For over 55 years, CAAs have provided the tools to help people move from poverty to self-sufficiency and they have done so at the local level ensuring the solutions work for local needs. The Community Action Agency Network is made up of more than 1,000 local, private, non-profit and public agencies, created through the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. CAAs provide services to more than 15 million low-income people, including 4 million children, annually in 99 percent of the nation’s counties.

Ohio’s Community Action Agencies serve all 88 counties across the state. Each assess local community needs to create local community solutions. There is no “typical” CAA because each is governed by the leadership and specific needs of its local community. But despite this fact, Community Action Agencies as a network approach fighting the causes of poverty and may do so in familiar ways such as by tacking workforce and economic development needs, improving education opportunities for children and adults, or coordinating emergency services.