The community mobilization project is a Chicago initiative to create mutual trust and a willingness to maintain public order, i.e., collective efficacy, in targeted areas. It attempts to build a strong organizational infrastructure that will support community policing. Community organizers are hired to work with community members, agencies, and governmental entities to promote resident involvement in problem solving activities on behalf of the community. Community empowerment and self-sufficiency are the program's main goals. The article contains elements of a project evaluation based on observation of planning and training meetings, interviews with key activists, public meeting attendance, ride-alongs with beat officers, and a telephone survey of 1,880 community residents involved in the mobilization project. The evaluation examines problems and their causes, as well as some positive accomplishments. Questions for future consideration include: (1) Should the city give financial support to independent community groups or is it more effective to directly employ organizers managed by a city department? (2) Can grassroots organizers separate themselves from politics? and (3) Are the efforts of individual organizers, even when supported by a broad range of city services and working in conjunction with local police, enough to make a difference in the targeted beats? Figures