Community Action Agency of Greater Kansas City

The Ultimate Goal of Community Action Agency of Greater Kansas City (CAAGKC) is to change the lives of  poor and low-income families and individuals in Jackson, Clay and Platte Counties in Missouri; to embody the spirit of hope; improve our communities; make America a better place in which to live; and help low-income families and individuals escape the ravages and causes of poverty. CAAGKC is one of more than 1,000 Community Action Agencies covering 96% of every County in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Trust Territories.  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.    Our agencies are connected by a national network that includes the Community Action Partnership national association, regional associations, state associations, a national lobbying organization, and a national association of Community Service Block Grant administrators.CAAs are a primary source of direct support for the more than 34.5 million people who live in poverty in the United States.  The majority of CAA program participants are exremely poor, with incomes below 75% of the federal poverty threshold.   We define long-term success as "the elimination of poverty." We will know we have been successful when we no longer see the faces of hungry children in our schools or malnourished seniors in their homes; no longer hear the tragedies of people freezing to death in winter or dying of heatstroke in summer; or never again have to face a homeless family.  We have all been told that "the poor will always be with us."  This is not a statement of hopelessness, nor should it be taken as an excuse for inaction.   While year after year, the number of people that we serve continues to grow, we know that as long as and as hard as Community Action Agencies have been working to wipe out poverty in our time -- the causes of poverty (whether blameless or not) just never seem to completely disappear.  So we continually seek better ways to serve the clients who come to us, learn to acknowledge the depth of their trauma, and show them the respect that all people deserve.

We have four key strategies to help low-income individuals in our region. First, we support a network of thirty pantries, including one we run entirely by ourself, to ensure that everyone has access to the nutrition they need to lead healthy and productive lives. Secondly, we provide supportive services, such as rental and utility assistance, and provide case management to help those in crisis stay in their homes. Thirdly, we provide weatherization services, where low-income individuals can have their homes assessed and then contractors will visit and improve the energy efficiency of their homes. A small pilot project from this program is the Healthy Homes program, where we are addressing those environmental health hazards which affect low-income families, such as pests, lead, mold and other allergens. Lastly, we have our Youth Services programs, which helps youth from low-income households reach their educational, leadership and career goals.

Our capabilities begin with the longevity of our work, CAAGKC has been serving the community since 1978. We have developed programming that is responsive to the needs of our clients identified in the Community Needs Assessment, and hired people from the front-lines to program design that are compassionate and intentional about serving our clients. We also have developed crucial Quality Assurance and Accounting departments, who ensure that our program are fulfilling their obligations to our funders and our clients. In an agency of our size, with large programs serving populations in three counties, these administrative processes are not after-thoughts, but key components in our ability to meet our goals.

Community Action Agency of Greater Kansas City has always been here for citizens in crisis, and for those low-income citizens in need of support, but we are exceptionally proud of our response in 2020 to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the unprecedented number of clients in need of our services. While it seemed the rest of the city shut down, we stayed open, and secured additional federal funding to keep Kansas Citians in their homes.

We look in a post-COVID future to develop our programming to better transition clients from crisis to self-sustainability. For example, plan to expand our Healthy Homes pilot by partnering with local healthcare providers to identify those clients for whom our intervention into their home hazards, such as mold, pests or lead could lead to fewer ER visits and better health outcomes. This is especially important as our city looks at its health and support systems in a post-COVID world.