Project goals were to increase access to treatment and to improve treatment outcomes. Each component of the project was designed to enhance the effectiveness of existing systems and services for treating indigent clients. The capacity of Detroit's Central Diagnostic and Referral Service (CDRS) was expanded by adding assessment staff, the Addiction Severity Index was adopted to determine the appropriate level of care required for each client, a fully automated system was developed to monitor and control access to the provider treatment network, crisis screening case management services and pretreatment case management were added to the CDRS, and a management information system was used to provide access to critical information. A detailed plan was devised to evaluate the impact of treatment initiatives in terms of access to treatment, treatment effectiveness, treatment coordination, and treatment for jail inmates. Evaluation findings showed that the proportion of clients referred by the CDRS who were actually admitted into a treatment program increased significantly after full implementation of the Target Cities project. 12 references