A community action agency shall serve as a primary advocate for reducing the causes, conditions, and effects of poverty and must provide social and economic opportunities that foster self-sufficiency for low-income individuals. A community action agency may engage in activities necessary to fulfill the intent of this act, including, but not limited to, the following:

    (a) Informing this state, units of local government, private agencies and organizations, and citizens of the nature and extent of poverty within the service area.

    (b) Developing, administering, and operating community social and economic programs to reduce poverty within the service area.

    (c) Providing a range of services and activities having a measurable and potentially major impact on causes of poverty in the community or in the service areas of the community.

    (d) Providing activities designed to assist low-income participants, including the elderly poor, to secure and retain meaningful employment; to attain an adequate education; to make better use of available income; to obtain and maintain adequate housing and a suitable living environment; to 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; to remove obstacles and solve problems that block the achievement of self-sufficiency; to achieve greater participation in community affairs; and to make more effective use of other programs related to the purposes of this section.

    (e) Providing, on an emergency basis, supplies and services, nutritious food items, and related services necessary to counteract conditions of starvation and malnutrition among the poor.

    (f) Providing and establishing linkages between governmental and other social services programs to ensure the effective delivery of services to low-income individuals.

    (g) Encouraging the use of entities in the private sector of the community in efforts to reduce poverty.

    (h) Conducting pilot and demonstration projects with innovative approaches to reduce poverty, improve services, and utilize resources.

    (i) Providing and advocating for training and technical assistance to public and private agencies, community groups, and units of local government to better define human problems, to improve services, and to facilitate citizen participation, including that of low-income individuals.

    (j) Increasing interagency coordination and cooperation in serving low-income individuals. If possible, community action agencies must enter into partnership and collaboration with other organizations to meet economic self-sufficiency goals.

    (k) Entering into contracts with federal, state, and local public and private agencies and organizations as necessary to carry out the purposes of this act.

    (l) Mobilizing federal, state, and local public and private financial resources and material and volunteer resources to reduce poverty and increase social and economic opportunities.

    (m) Mobilizing community involvement from private and nonprofit sectors, including, but not limited to, businesses, economic and job development organizations, nonprofit faith-based communities, technical colleges and institutions of higher education, and the public sector, including, but not limited to, townships, cities, counties, and this state to address issues of poverty. Community action agencies must coordinate with welfare-to-work strategies and implement strategies that increase household income and assets that lead to long-term economic self-sufficiency.

    (n) Serving populations with barriers to self-sufficiency such as individuals and families with low incomes, senior citizens, young children, homeless individuals, physically and developmentally disabled individuals, low-wage workers, and adults without literacy skills or basic education or adequate skills needed for the workplace.

    (o) Engaging in any other activity necessary to fulfill the provisions of this act.