About ICAA

Iowa Community Action Association - Building Stronger Communities Throughout Iowa

Mission
To serve as a forceful advocate at the state and federal levels in support of public policies, funding, and program administration that address the needs of the low income and disadvantaged citizens of Iowa; and to provide services which enhance the capacity of the community action network and encourage the professional development of its members.

Overview
The Community Action movement was created in 1964, as result of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Since that time, Community Action has become a national network of local agencies that exist to develop solutions to poverty.

More than 330,000 Iowans are assisted annually by Iowa’s eighteen (18) Community Action Agencies (CAAs) through a wide range of services that are at the forefront of innovative strategies to empower low-income citizens to become self-sufficient and full participants in their communities.

Iowa’s CAAs are locally-based private, non-profit organizations that network with a wide-array of local organizations to enhance the opportunities for low-income Iowans (children and families) to meet basic needs and develop their own capacity to do so.

Iowa’s CAAs possess extremely efficient and effective delivery systems that maximize the federal, state and local resources in providing services to citizens in all of Iowa’s 99 counties, with over $146 million invested in the futures of low-income Iowans during Fiscal Year 2002.

Iowa’s CAAs, in partnership with the Iowa Community Action Association and the Division of Community Action Agencies, are committed to helping low-income Iowans change their lives by breaking the cycle of poverty and removing the barriers to achieve self-sufficiency.