What Are CAA's?
Community Action Agencies (CAAs) are nonprofit private and public
organizations established under the Economic Opportunity
Act of 1964 to fight America's War on Poverty. Community
Action Agencies help people to help themselves in achieving
self-sufficiency. Today there are approximately 1,000
Community Action Agencies in the United States.
The CAA Network - Community Action Agencies
Across America
The service areas of Community Action Agencies (CAA's) cover
96 percent of the nation's counties.* These agencies are connected
by a national network that includes a national association,
state associations, regional associations, a national lobbying
organization, and a national association of Community Service
Block Grant (the core funding for CAA's) administrators.
CAA's are a primary source of support for the
more than 34.5 million people who are living in poverty in
the United States.** The majority of CAA program participants
are extremely poor, with incomes below 75 percent of the federal
poverty threshold, or $9,735 for a family of three (the average
family size for the client population).*
CAA's as a network serve approximately:
- 9.3 million individuals per
year *
- 3.3 million families per year
*
Addititional CAA Facts:
- 54% of CAA's are in rural
areas.
- 36% of CAA's are in areas
considered both urban and rural.
- 10% of CAA's are located in
urban areas.
The average population of a CAA’s
service area is approximately 300,000 people. The average number
of low-income people within these service areas is 37,600.
* Source: The National Association for State Community Services
Programs
** Source: Census Bureau
Other figures obtained through a 1998 survey of CAA's. Response
rate: 37 percent.
Board, Staff, and Volunteers
Composition of a CAA board of directors:
- At least one-third of a board’s members must
be from the low-income community
- Exactly one-third must be public officials
- Up to one-third may be from the private sector
- The average size of a CAA board is 25 people
- The typical size of agency staff is 115 full-time equivalent
workers.
- On average each CAA has 813 people volunteering at the
agency each year.
