Economic Opportunity Act [EOA] Law and Legal Definition
The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (EOA) was the initial step in the war on poverty aspect of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program.
The purpose of EOA was to help the poor by enabling them to pull themselves from the grip of poverty and to improve the role of the federal government in the improvement of education.
The EOA established over a thousand of Community Action Agencies (CAA's) at the local level to implement Great Society programs. The EOA required the poor have maximum feasible participation in poverty program planning. CAAs sought participation by the poor by opening storefront and neighborhood centers.