History Flashcards

Which 1996 federal law significantly reshaped the landscape for CAA clients by ending the federal entitlement to welfare and creating time-limited block grants?

Answer: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA)

PRWORA replaced AFDC with TANF, imposing time limits and work requirements that dramatically changed the population CAAs served and the supports clients needed.

The National Association of Community Action Agencies (NACAA), which later became Community Action Partnership, was established to:

Answer: Provide a collective voice and technical assistance for the CAA network nationally

NACAA/Community Action Partnership serves as the national network association, providing advocacy, training, and peer learning for the 1,000+ CAA network.

President Reagan's 'New Federalism' philosophy, which shaped the 1981 CSBG transition, held that anti-poverty programs were better administered at which level?

Answer: State and local levels with minimal federal mandates

Reagan's New Federalism pushed responsibility for social programs to states and localities, arguing they were closer to local needs and more efficient than federal administration.

The Lyndon B. Johnson administration's internal debates over the 'community action' approach centered on a key tension between which two goals?

Answer: Empowering the poor through participation versus maintaining political stability and relationships with city mayors

Johnson faced pressure from mayors like Chicago's Richard Daley who resisted low-income residents gaining independent political power through CAAs.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), now administered by many CAAs, was created in which year as part of the federal energy policy response?

Answer: 1981

LIHEAP was established in 1981 as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act to help low-income households with energy costs following the 1970s oil crises.

Which historical Community Action concept recognized that poverty in rural areas required different strategies than urban poverty, leading to programs targeting regions like Appalachia?

Answer: The place-based approach addressing geographically concentrated poverty

Place-based approaches recognized that rural regions like Appalachia had concentrated, multi-generational poverty requiring regionally tailored economic development strategies.

Community Action Agencies' historical emphasis on 'self-sufficiency' as an outcome aligns with which founding principle articulated in the Economic Opportunity Act?

Answer: That the goal is enabling individuals and families to achieve independence from public assistance

The EOA's founding vision was helping low-income Americans gain the skills, resources, and opportunities to become self-sufficient, not permanently dependent on assistance.