Sec. 9. A community action agency shall do the following:

(1) Systematically plan for an effective community action program.

(2) Develop information concerning the problems and causes of poverty in the community.

(3) Determine the amount and effectiveness of the assistance being provided to deal with the problems and causes of poverty in the community.

(4) Establish priorities among projects, activities, and areas to ensure the best and most efficient use of resources.

(5) Encourage agencies engaged in activities related to the community action program to do the following:

(A) Plan for, secure, and administer available assistance on a common or cooperative basis.

(B) Provide planning or technical assistance to those agencies.

(6) In cooperation with community agencies and officials, undertake actions to improve existing efforts to reduce poverty, including the following:

(A) Improving day-to-day communications.

(B) Closing service gaps.

(C) Focusing resources on the most needy.

(D) Providing additional opportunities to low income individuals for any of the following:

(i) Regular employment.

(ii) Participation in the programs or activities for which those community agencies and officials are responsible.

(7) Initiate and sponsor projects responsive to those needs of the poor that are not otherwise being met. The projects must emphasize the following:

(A) Providing central or common services that can be drawn upon by various related programs.

(B) Developing new approaches or new types of services that can be incorporated into other programs.

(C) Filling gaps pending the expansion or modification of the programs.

(8) Establish effective procedures to do the following:

(A) Enable the poor and the affected area residents to influence the character of programs affecting the interests of the poor and the affected area.

(B) Provide for regular participation of the poor and the affected area residents in the implementation of the programs.

(C) Provide technical and other support needed to enable the poor and neighborhood groups to secure available assistance from public and private sources.

(9) Join with and encourage business, labor, and other private groups and organizations to undertake, together with public officials and agencies, activities in support of the community action program that will result in the additional use of private resources and capabilities. These activities shall be undertaken for the following purposes:

(A) Developing new employment opportunities.

(B) Stimulating investment that will have a measurable impact on reducing poverty among residents of areas of concentrated poverty.

(C) Providing methods by which residents of the areas can work with private groups, firms, and institutions in seeking solutions to problems of common concern.

[Pre-1992 Revision Citation: 12-1-21-7.]

As added by P.L.2-1992, SEC.8.