About Us

The Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS), a private non-profit agency incorporated in 1981, is the legally designated anti-poverty agency for Somerville. The mission of CAAS is to reduce poverty among local families and individuals while working to counteract, and whenever possible eliminate, the societal conditions that cause and perpetuate poverty.

Key achievements of CAAS include the following:

• Providing a full array of Head Start services to low-income children and their families since 1982.

• Pioneering an award-winning fatherhood program, the Good Guys Project, and organizing the Northeast Regional Fatherhood Conference.

• Assisting low-income tenants at Clarendon Hill Towers to organize a tenant association and purchase their housing complex, keeping their homes affordable.

• Creating an Eviction Prevention Program that assists 275 tenants each year who are in imminent danger of becoming homeless.

• Supporting immigrants in creating their own community organizations, including The Haitian Coalition and the Somerville Latino Coalition.

• Creating a rapid response network to cope with racist and anti-immigrant harassment, violence, and hate crimes.

• Exposing fraudulent signatures on an anti-immigrant ballot petition.

• Continuing to identify community needs as they emerge, and coordinating the organization's resources with those of the community to meet the needs as they arise.

Last Updated: November 10, 2009.