Non-Profit Designation - NOT Government
Western Community Action, Inc. is a private non-profit agency with a 501 C3 IRS designation. Community Action is not part of the State, Federal, or County Government and it's employees are not state or federal employees. The local board governs the agency and applies to various federal and state organizations and foundations to obtain funding and grants to meet the locally determined needs of the community.

Governance/Board Structure
The strength of Community Action is the unique tri-partite board. By federal statute, Community Action Agencies both represent and are accountable to their local community for the manner in which they pursue their poverty-fighting missions, as well as in the way they use their resources. Agencies are governed by a Board of Directors consisting of 1/3 elected local public officials, 1/3 appointed leaders from the private sector, and 1/3 representatives of the low-income community. This unique structure is fundamental to the Community Action concept. It empowers low-income people to participate directly in the development of responses to poverty conditions; at the same time, private and public representatives gain a clearer knowledge of the issues confronting low-income and senior citizens of their community. This local board has final authority in governing the agency and determining its priorities and activities. It is unique in that public officials, local interested private citizens and income eligible residents sit together with equal power in determining local needs and the methods to be used in meeting those needs.

Legislation Creating Community Action
In 1961 President John F. Kennedy's "New Frontier: included support for programs to prevent juvenile deliquency. The President's Council chaired by U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy funded Mobilization for Youth (MYF) with the Ford Foundation and the City of New York. MYF organized and coordinated neighborhood councils composed of local officials, service providers, and the neighbors to develop plans to correct conditions which led to juvenile delinquency. It also enlisted the aid of the school board and city council members to implement these plans. This project and pilot plan was called COMMUNITY ACTION and it looked like an effective and inexpensive way to solve problems.

The Ford Foundation was funding other projects, including one in New Haven, Connecticut, which recurited people from all sectors of the community to come together to plan and implement programs to help low-income people. MYF and New Haven are often cited as the "models" for a community action agency.

After the assassination of President Kenedy in November, 1963, President Lyndon Baines Johnson expanded the policy ideas, initiated in the Kenedy Administration. In his message to Congress on January 8, 1964, President Johnson said:

"Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John F. Kennedy, not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right...This Administration today, here and now, declares an unconditional War on Poverty in America...Our joint Federal-local effort must pursue poverty, pursue it wherever it exists. In City slums, in small towns, in sharecroppers' shacks, or in migrant worker camps, on Indian reservations, among whites as well as Negroes, among the young as well as the aged, in the boom towns and in the depressed areas."

The "War on Poverty" was born. In February, R. Sargent Shriver was asked to head a task force to draft legislation. In August, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was passed creating a federal Office of Economic Opportunity. "Sarge" Shriver was named Director, serving until 1969.

Congress also passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, guaranteeing equal opportunity for all. The Economic Opportunity Act, designed to implement that guarantee, stated in part: "It is therefore the policy of the United States to eliminate the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty in this nation by opening, to everyone, the opportunity for education and training, the opportunity to work, and the opportunity to live in decency and dignity."

The Federal Office of Economic Opportunity led the efforts of the War on Poverty. Economic Opportynicy offices at the state level were created in order to involve governors in the effort. Funds were provided by the Office of Economic Opportunity to allow local citizens an opportunity to create Community Action Agencies and use the funds to meet the problems and needs of the poor in their area. These "local initiative funds" were used in a variety of ways.

Organization of Western Community Action
June 15, 1965 an eleven county meeting was held in Windom, Minnesota, where information about the Economic Opportunity Act and the formation of Community Action agencies was given. At that meeting, it was decided that Lincoln, Lyon, and Redwood Counties should band together for the purpose of forming a multi-county Community Action Corportation.

June 22, 1965, 35 interested citizens of Lincoln, Lyon, and Redwood County attended an organizational meeting at the Marshall Municipal Building. George Senden, Employment Security, Marshall, Minnesota introduced representatives from the State Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). After review of the Economic Opportunity Act, it was stated that a non-profit corporation was the vehicle to implement the Community Action Section (Title 2-B) of the Economic Opportunity Act. The representatives voted to organize themselves and form a non-profit corporation. The delegates from the 3 counties were then requested to caucus and select 10 members from each county to serve on the council. From the 30 representatives, 10 representatives from each county were elected to serve on the Board.

The decision was made to establish a central office for the director and administration in the Civil Defense Quarters in the Municipal Building in Marshall with branch offices in the City Hall in Hendricks and the County Court House in Redwood Falls.

In 1979, Jackson and Cottonwood Counties were added to the service area of Western Community Action.