Program leaders at the Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee (CAC) prefer to stay focused on their mission of helping people and changing lives rather than celebrating themselves. But 60 years of service in Knoxville is something worth celebrating.
Nearly 200 people, including Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, gathered Nov. 7 at the CAC Ross Building on Western Avenue to honor the agency’s 60 th anniversary. Knoxville’s CAC opened in 1964 as part of national network to provide programs and services for low-income families and communities.
“I think the last time we officially celebrated anything for the agency was, I think, our 15th anniversary,” Executive Director Barbara Kelly told Knox News.
“We’re more concerned about the work that we do on a day-to-day basis,” Kelly explained. “It takes a lot to put together something like this. And everything that you do in one way, you’re not doing in another.”
CAC offers a variety of programs and services to help individuals and communities , such as Head Start preschool, home repairs, meal delivery to homebound seniors, utility payment assistance, transportation and helping people on disability benefits to reenter the workforce.