From Democratic Engagement to Individual Self Sufficiency: Framing Poverty Reduction in Community Action Agency Mission Statements

The Community Action Program was a central component of the War on Poverty, establishing Community Action Agencies (CAAs) in the United States beginning in the 1960’s. CAAs emphasized “maximum feasible participation” from low-income citizens, but that inclusive aim was always in tension with a more top-down model of service provision. This article contributes to the literature on poverty governance by offering a qualitative analysis of the mission statements of CAAs across the nation, testing the degree to which they frame poverty in collective and participatory terms. I document that most missions feature individualistic and expert- focused elements, consistent with the approaches taken in other sites of the contemporary poverty governance landscape. I also find that some continue to emphasize more collective and participatory approaches. Those missions, though less common, demonstrate that some CAAs continue to resonate with elements evident at the founding of the Community Action Program. With presence in almost every county of the United States, CAAs hold the potential to expand prevailing frameworks for thinking about and addressing poverty as a social structure.