Blount County Community Action Agency

What is Community Action?

Established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty focused efforts to  “…not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it”. Thus, Community Action Agencies (CAA) were created and charged to equip low-income citizens with the tools and potential for increasing self-sufficiency and economic stability.

CAAs address causes of poverty, not the symptoms, which means that:

• CAAs work to ensure their community offers everyone opportunities to become economically secure, and
• They invest in individuals and their families who are striving to develop their skills.

Local Control

The nation’s 1,000-plus Community Action Agencies are a robust, state and local force – reaching children and families in 99% of America’s counties with life-changing services that create pathways to self-reliance. There are 20 Community Action Agencies across the State of Tennessee.

The vast majority of Community Action Agencies (CAAs) are private non-profits, but some are agencies of local or county government. Both types of CAAs are locally-based organizations with a longstanding community presence, a community-selected governing board and transparent management systems.

CSBG requires local and state plans to address community improvements by:

• Supporting greater civic participation
• Developing “grassroots” public-private partnerships
• Funding innovative community-based initiatives
• Establishing better linkages among government programs

Place Based Solutions

Every three (3) years, each CAA must complete a Comprehensive Community Needs Assessment identifying local needs and a plan to address the identified issues and gaps, collaborative programming and supplemental services with Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) funding. Under the community action agency structure, the ability to promote local control on identified solutions allows communities to assess their own needs, avoid duplication of services and prescribe place-based solutions.

2024: Blount County Results

1. Housing Services
2. Elderly Services
3. Child Care Services
4. Transportation Services
5. Nutrition Services

Local control allows communities to assess their own needs and prescribe place-based solutions. Local plans for using CSBG funds must reflect a well-conceived strategy for ameliorating poverty; that strategy must include approaches and activities chosen from those listed in the CSBG Act which the local agency leaders deem to be necessary and effective for their community:

Information provided by the National Community Action Foundation.

CAA’s are mandated to be governed under a tripartite Board of Directors membership identified by their representation of three sectors of the community.

These sectors include the public, private and the low-income representation.

• • • The public representative sector consists of elected community officials, who represent the leadership that the citizens of the community have selected to serve in various government roles. This membership sector does not create political affiliations or bias for BCCAA, yet reflects who the community has deemed as their voice to address and solve many impactful community service needs.
    • The private representative sector membership consists of individuals in various business, industry, labor, religious, welfare, education or other major groups and interests in the community.
    • The low-income representative sector consists of various members of the community who are either members of the community who have received BCCAA services or represent agencies that also service low-income populations.