Community Action Agencies were created in 1964 as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty through the Economic Opportunity Act. The ultimate purpose of the "Act" was to give the opportunity for upward mobility to those who had been historically unable to participate in the mainstream of American life.

Community Action was designed to stimulate a better focusing of all available local, state, private and federal resources toward the goal of enabling low income individuals and families in rural and urban areas the opportunity to attain the skills, knowledge and motivation to become self sufficient. Programs are administered under the Community Service Block Grant.

Community Action's primary mission is to make the entire community more responsive to the needs and interests of the low income by mobilizing resources and bringing greater institutional sensitivity.

A Community Action's effectiveness is measured, therefore, not only by the services which it directly provides but, more importantly, by the improvement and changes it achieves in the community's attitudes and practices toward the low income, and in the allocation and focusing of public and private resources for anti poverty purposes.

CAATCRCC was incorporated in 1964. The three original counties included Talladega, Clay, and Randolph. In 2003 the agency expanded to include Calhoun and Cleburne counties. It has succeeded dramatically, and continues to be the primary provider of services to low income families, waging war against poverty in areas of economic development, housing, health care, education, and much more. CAATCRCC works with three significant groups in the community— the low income sector, the public sector, and the private sector to seek out and identify conditions that block low income individuals from becoming self-sufficient.

The agency continues to cross all lines of ethnicity, race, gender, political persuasion and religion.