Welcome to the
Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois, serving the low-income and elderly in Central Illinois.
Community Action is a private, non-profit organization
funding with federal, state and local dollars in order to provide necessary
services to the low-income, elderly and disabled in our service area. Community
Action
currently provides services in DeWitt, Mason, Menard, Fulton, Logan and Piatt
counties. We are a 501(c)3 corporation headquartered in Lincoln, Illinois.
There are 10 Head Start sites throughout our counties and 5 Community Action
offices located in Lincoln, Havana, Clinton, Monticello, and Petersburg.
Community Action employs over 150 central Illinois citizens. Each year, we serve over
24,000 individuals with various forms of assistance.
Community action agencies
are the nation's largest federally assisted network of organizations whose
sole purpose is to eliminate the causes and conditions of poverty. They
began as a spearhead of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty in the
mid-1960s.
Poverty in America excludes millions of people from an ever-expanding
spectrum of economic and social opportunities. The low-income single female
heads of households, children below the age of eighteen, inner
and Indian and other
Native American peoples.
To open avenues
of escape from poverty, community action agencies operate on a variety of
fronts. They assess the needs and resources of low-income people, devise
strategies for eliminating poverty, identify sources of financial support
and administer a variety of programs.
Source: Maximum
Feasible Success by Robert F. Clark