Community Action is a program that was founded by the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act to fight poverty by providing services, assistance, and other activities of sufficient scope and size to give promise of progress toward elimination of poverty or a cause or causes of poverty through developing employment opportunities, improving human performance, motivation, and productivity, or bettering the conditions under which people live, learn, and work. Community Action Agencies (CAA) are local private and public non-profit organizations that carry out the Community Action Program (CAP) in the United States and its territories. These agencies are established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to combat poverty in geographically designated areas. The guiding principle of maximum feasible participation continues today in Community Action. Local Community Action boards are tripartite, in other words, have representation from all segments of the local community including their low-income clients. The Community Action Method prioritizes prevention, addresses the causes of poverty, involves the community, improves the community, and creates self-sufficiency. Community Action Agencies seek to involve the community, including elected public officials, private sector representatives, and especially low-income residents in assessing local needs and attacking the causes and conditions of poverty. The agencies work to better focus available local, state, private, and federal resources to assist low-income individuals and families to acquire useful skills and knowledge, gain access to new opportunities and achieve economic self-sufficiency.