Our Beginning, January 1965
The passage of the Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) of 1964 as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's" War on Poverty" brought about the creation of Community Action. The purpose of the statue was to eliminate the causes and consequences of poverty. The act establisthe the federal Office of Economic Opportunity and created organizations called Community Action Agencies (
CAAs) that would develop strategie to solve local issues of poverty. Mahoning Youngstown Community Action Partnership (MYCAP) once known as Youngstown Area Community Action Agency is a non-profit organization incorporated by the state of Ohio in 1965. It was established for the express purpose of mobilizing and utilizing resources to increase the quality of life for low income residents of Mahoning County (Ohio). While there are over 900 community action agencies in the United States, no two of them are the same, because each is designed to address problems unique to the community in which it is located. Services are provided with administrative and operational funds from the state of Ohio"s Office of Development, Community Services Block Grant, along with other funds from various sources. MYCAP combines hard work, creativity and resourcefulness to combat poverty in Mahoning County. Our programs are designed to address the problems unique to Mahoning County. MYCAP is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of representatives of the private, public and low-income sectors of the community. The agency employs more than 200 full and part-time employees. Key to the success of MYCAP is the staff and board of directors but more importantly are the community partnerships we have built over the past 40 years that help us to move our mission forward. We realize that we cannot do this work alone therefore we extend our right hand of partnership to those individuals, agencies and businesses who support our mission and who want to help those we serve move toward self-sufficiency.
