Learn How Local Community Action Agencies Help Make Lives and Communities Better Every Day
Thriving, resilient communities become that way by making sure the people and families who live there have access to reliable, proven educational, economic, health, nutritional, housing, and other programs and resources that offer real opportunities and support. Massachusetts’ network of 23 nonprofit Community Action Agencies provide the talent, services, structure, and experience for those life-changing programs and resources across virtually every city and town in the state as part of a national network of over 1,000 agencies. Community Action Agencies facilitate a range of programs that employ more than 5,000 individuals in a variety of job positions across the state.
How Do Community Action Agencies Help People?
People and their families are the literal heart of communities, but all people are not born with equal resources, options, or opportunities. However, when individuals get help with equitable levels of life necessities, they not only make their own lives better, they make their communities better, stronger, and more productive. Every local Community Action Agency in Massachusetts is built to be a flexible, responsive, and steadfast source of active, involved, dynamic support where and when they are needed most for real-world help, including:
HOME HEATING & ENERGY EFFICIENCY
For homeowners and renters alike, our agencies provide access to discounted heating rates based on household income, as well as a range of discounts on products and services that can make a person’s home heating and cooling cost less through efficiency improvements.
EARLY EDUCATION & CHILD CARE
In Massachusetts, our Community Action Agencies provide trusted, reliable help implementing and operating Head Start® & Early Head Start, childcare, out of school time programs, family engagement, and parent education. We administer…
…more than half of the state’s Head Start population
…half of the state’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (CCR&Rs)
…approximately 1/3 of the early education subsidized slots statewide
Check out job listing to find available jobs in Early Education and Care.
FREE TAX PREPARATION & FINANCIAL LITERACY/MANAGEMENT
Learning and living by sound financial practices in daily life can determine whether a person will prosper or lose out in the world, so our Agencies provide free tax prep and financial guidance that can help turn a struggling person or family into a prospering part of any community for life.
HOUSING
An unstable housing situation will undercut every other aspect of a person’s efforts to stay out of poverty, which is why our Agencies provide qualified applicants with help and insights about affordable housing, rental assistance, home ownership, and homelessness prevention that can change lives.
Did you know that 1 in 6 Households lost employment income since Spring 2021?
FOOD SECURITY
As many as 1 in 6 Massachusetts households are food insecure at any given time, which means kids going to school and parents going to jobs feeling hungry and unable to concentrate on what they are doing. That’s unacceptable in an economic powerhouse like Massachusetts, and our Agencies are helping make that as rare as possible statewide.
JOB TRAINING & EMPLOYMENT
Across Massachusetts, Agencies’ workforce training and employment programs and services help increase adult economic mobility and youth potential by providing opportunities to learn skills needed to gain employment, earn needed academic certificates, or advance along a career path. This can include on-the-job experience, adult education, community service placement, resume and job search assistance, and more.
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES
Community Action Agencies partner with people in recovery from mental health and addiction challenges, supporting their personal and family strengths and working toward a goal of enriching their lives by improving their circumstances and their health to foster hope toward achievable goals that can help them reach their full potential.
Find the Community Action Agency in Your Area
Massachusetts has a network of 23 Community Action Agencies that service the entire state, find the one near you.
How Do Community Action Agencies Help Communities?
When people and families become economically, educationally, and socially stronger, so do their communities. All 23 Community Action Agencies in Massachusetts are based locally and run by, with, and for the benefit of their local people, schools, neighborhoods, businesses, and other organizations. Toward achieving that…
We identify local needs and work locally and collaboratively with others in the community to address those needs in whatever ways work best for that community. .
Our Agencies advocate for equity and equitable opportunity in each location statewide, helping communities get the resources and make the connections they need to rise above for their residents, simultaneously lifting the entire community.
Community Action Agencies often act as a “one-stop shopping” hub, where communities in need can always turn for answers to evolving challenges. If we can’t help directly, we can usually connect those in need with those who can help.
Community Action Agencies Share Values that Support Real Lives
Equity
Community Action Agencies believe that ALL people and communities can achieve their greatest potential only when systems and policies support equitable access to resources, opportunity, and justice.
Inclusivity
Community Action Agencies believe that ALL people and communities can achieve their greatest potential only when systems and policies support equitable access to resources, opportunity, and justice.
Equity
Community Action Agencies believe that ALL people and communities can achieve their greatest potential only when systems and policies support equitable access to resources, opportunity, and justice.
Jobs in Community Action
Community Action Agencies employ more than 5,000 people across the state in a wide range of roles – from educators, to advocates, outreach coordinators, energy auditors, program managers and executive leaders find the Community Action Agencies in your area to learn about about rewarding job opportunities.