California Code, Government Code - GOV § 12750

(a) A community action agency shall be a public or private nonprofit agency that fulfills all of the following requirements:

(b) A community action program is a locally planned and operated program comprising a range of services and activities having a measurable and potentially major impact on causes of poverty in the community or those areas of the community where poverty is a particularly acute problem.

(c) Component services and activities of a community action program may be administered directly by the community action agency, or by other agencies pursuant to delegation or subcontractual agreements with the eligible entity.  They may be projects eligible for assistance under this chapter, or projects assisted from other public or private sources, and they may be either specially designed to meet local needs, or designed pursuant to the eligibility standards of the state or federal program providing assistance to a particular kind of activity that will help in meeting those needs.

(d) For the purpose of this chapter, a community may be a city, county, multicity or multicounty unit, that provides a suitable organizational base and possesses the commonality of interest needed for a community action program.