2005 California Government Code Sections 12745-12747 Article 5. Eligible Activities

12745.  (a) Eligible activities for which financial assistance may
be obtained pursuant to this chapter shall be designed to have 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.  These activities shall be designed to
assist low-income participants to do all the following:
   (1) Secure and retain meaningful employment.
   (2) Attain an adequate education.
   (3) Make better use of available income.
   (4) Obtain and maintain adequate housing and suitable living
environment.
   (5) Obtain emergency assistance through loans or grants to meet
immediate and urgent individual and family needs, including the need
for health services, nutritious food, housing and employment-related
assistance.
   (6) Remove obstacles and solve problems which block the
achievement of self-sufficiency.
   (7) Achieve greater participation in the affairs of the community.
   (8) Make more effective use of other programs related to the
purposes of this chapter.
   (b) Additionally, activities shall be designed to do all of the
following:
   (1) Provide on an emergency basis for the provision of the
supplies and services, nutritious foodstuffs, and related services,
as may be necessary to counteract conditions of starvation and
malnutrition among the poor.
   (2) Coordinate and establish linkages between governmental and
other social services programs to assure the effective delivery of
such services to low-income individuals.
   (3) Encourage the use of entities in the private sector of the
community in efforts to ameliorate poverty in the community.
   (c) Each eligible entity shall, through the local planning
process, select and propose for funding the programs or projects
which, in its judgment, will produce the maximum impact on its
community.
   (d) Entities eligible for funding under Article 9 (commencing with
Section 12775) are limited purpose agencies which need not respond
to the broad range of eligible activities but may provide specialized
training, technical assistance and support services to enhance the
effectiveness of community action programs, migrant and seasonal
farmworker programs, and American Indian programs.
   (e) The department may prescribe statewide priorities among
eligible activities or strategies which shall be considered and
addressed in the local planning process and described in the local
plan submitted to the state.  Each local grantee shall be authorized
to set its own program priorities in conformance to its own
determination of local needs.
   (f) If no other entity in the community provides those services,
grantees under Article 6 (commencing with Section 12750), Article 7
(commencing with Section 12765), or Article 8 (commencing with
Section 12770) shall provide a minimum level of services to help the
poor receive the benefits for which they are eligible under health,
food, income, and housing assistance programs designed to meet the
basic survival needs of the poor.  These services shall include, but
shall not be limited to, all of the following:
   (1) A service to help the poor complete the various required
application forms, and, when necessary and possible, to help them
gather verification of the contents of completed applications.
   (2) A service to explain program requirements and client
responsibilities in programs serving the poor.
   (3) A service to provide transportation, when necessary and
possible.
   (4) A service which does all things necessary to make the programs
accessible to the poor, so that they may become self-sufficient.
   (g) Standards of effectiveness to be addressed in setting goals
and assessing accomplishments are:
   (1) Strengthened community capabilities for planning and
coordinating so as to insure that available assistance related to the
elimination of poverty can be more responsive to local needs and
conditions.
   (2) Better organization of services related to the needs of the
poor.
   (3) Maximum feasible participation of the poor in the development
and implementation of all programs and projects designed to serve the
poor.
   (4) Broadened resource base of programs directed to the
elimination of poverty so as to include all elements of the community
able to influence the quality and quantity of services to the poor.
   (5) Greater use of new types of services and innovative approaches
in attacking causes of poverty, so as to develop increasingly
effective methods of employing available resources.
   (6) Maximum employment opportunity, including opportunity for
further occupational training and career development for residents of
the area and members of the groups served.
12747.  (a) Local plans shall be developed each year by eligible
entities using processes which assess poverty-related needs,
available resources, and feasible goals and strategies, and which
yield program priorities consistent with standards of effectiveness
established for this program.  Local plans shall identify eligible
activities to be funded in the program service areas and the needs
which each activity is designed to meet.  Local plans shall provide
for the contingency of reduced federal funding.
   (b) All eligible entities shall submit their grant applications,
including local plan and report of the public hearing, if required,
to the department no later than June 30 of each year.
   (c) Each eligible entity not serving a statewide area shall
conduct a local public hearing for the purpose of reviewing the local
plans of all eligible entities located or operating within a
political subdivision served or proposed to be served pursuant to
this chapter.
   (d) Agencies holding hearings pursuant to this article shall
identify all testimony presented by the poor, and shall determine
whether the concerns expressed by that testimony have been addressed
in the plan.  If the agency determines that any of these concerns
have not been included in the plan, it shall specify in its response
to the plan information about those concerns and comment as to their
validity.