Each year the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania honors outstanding individuals who, with the aid of their local Community Action Agency, have overcome poverty and achieved self-sufficiency.

The following are stories of triumph -- stories that chronicle the lives of people who overcame insurmountable odds. They are people with the drive to achieve more in life, but lacked the support network that would allow them to do so.

They are men and women who started with a dream that was shattered either through circumstances such as an unhealthy relationship, an accident or an illness. Or their dreams ended suddenly with an unexpected loss of employment and an education that provided little chance of finding a family-sustaining job. But a common thread binds these stories together -- Community Action Agencies.