Every community action agency has a fundamental responsibility to encourage, assist, and strengthen the ability of the poor in the areas served by the community action agency to play major roles in the organization; program planning; goal setting; determination of priorities; decisions concerning budgeting and financial management; key decisions concerning hiring of personnel, selection criteria, personnel policies, and career development programs; and evaluation of programs affecting their lives. The fundamental responsibility of the community action agency includes all of the following:

(a) Seeking and bringing about ways to improve its own effectiveness as a channel through which the poor, local government, and private groups can communicate, plan, and act together in partnership. In that partnership, the poor shall have a strong voice or role, both directly and through representatives whom they have chosen.

(b) Providing the representatives of the poor serving on the tripartite board of the community action agency with the tools and the support, including guidance, training, and staff assistance, that will permit them to participate meaningfully in the affairs of the community action agency, and in all of its programs and subcontractor agencies.

(c) Encouraging the development of effective local organizations established and controlled by residents of poor neighborhoods and areas. Community action agencies are expected to provide training, technical assistance, and staff resources to enable the poor to develop, administer, and participate effectively in local area programs and to enter into the broader community discussion of problems and solutions relating to poverty.

(d) Providing employment for poor persons in all phases of the community action program.

(e) Continually ensuring that subcontractor agencies involve poor persons in the planning, conduct, and evaluation of subcontracted programs.

(f) Working for the acceptance by other public and private agencies and organizations serving the community of effective and growing involvement of the poor in the planning, conduct, and evaluation of all activities that affect them and their inclusion in career jobs in the agencies.

(Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 46, Sec. 21. Effective January 1, 2008. Repealed conditionally as prescribed by Section 12790.)