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Forest Lake

Who We Are

What is Community Action?

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act into law, marking an important moment in the fight against poverty in the United States. The law was created to help low-income American's by giving them chances to improve their lives. It started several programs to fight poverty, including Job Corps, Head Start, and Community Action Programs.

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These Community Action Programs helped local communities come up with their own plans to reduce poverty. These efforts worked well, as the poverty rate dropped from 19% in 1964 to 11.6% by 1973, just 10 years after the law was passed. The national poverty rate from 2023 data was 11.1%. 

CAPO Mission

CAPO Vision

To magnify the impact of Community Action to serve low-income Oregonians by advocating for resources with a unified voice, strengthening partnerships, and building capacity.

We envision inclusive and caring communities across Oregon where people have equitable access to the services and resources they need to thrive and are able to meet their own goals. CAPO empowers Oregon’s Community Action Network to use current best practices and apply an equity lens to all our work.

Our Organization

Community Action Partnership of Oregon (CAPO), serves as the state-wide association for the Community Action Network in Oregon.  We work to magnify the impact of Community Action to serve low-income Oregonians by advocating for resources with a unified voice, strengthening partnerships, and building network capacity. The operations team focuses on supporting the statewide anti-poverty network and their staff with training opportunities, technical assistance, and general program support. Alongside this, we house four individual programs to better support our network and their fight against poverty. Our programs serve overlapping community action agencies,  community partners for various training, and operational needs.

 

CAPO does not offer direct client services and suggests reaching out to your local community action agency under the "Find Help" tab.  

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CAPO Operations Staff:

  • Janet Allanach, Executive Director

  • Raynie Lindsey, Training and Development Manager

  • Shane Melton, Finance and Grants Manager

  • Michele Schaefer, Operations Coordinator

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CAPO Programs

  • The Oregon Training Institute (OTI) serves the CAA network with training and workforce development opportunities in energy efficiency and weatherization of low-income homes. 

  • The Rural Oregon Continuum of Care (ROCC) is Oregon’s Balance of State CoC, supporting homelessness prevention and housing services in 26 rural Oregon counties.

  • The Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program delivers housing support, healthcare navigation, legal assistance, and case management to veterans in 13 counties via six CAA sub-grantees.

  • The Food and Families Program (F&F) supports CAAs providing early childhood education, food and nutrition assistance, diaper pantries, and other family-focused programs.

For contact information, please visit the "Contact Us" tab above. 
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