State-level administrators in these States have learned that soliciting the ideas of community leaders, offering mechanisms for coordination, and engaging community residents in crime control and prevention can empower struggling communities and create important partnerships among agencies and institutions whose activities traditionally have been isolated. The Maryland HotSpot Communities Initiative promotes locally based, comprehensive planning in high-crime, at-risk neighborhoods. Core elements include community mobilization, community policing, community probation, community maintenance, prevention activities for youth, and local coordination. Virginia's community-based approach to criminal justice planning is expressed in a statewide plan that sets priorities for the public safety needs and efforts that exist at the community level. The State Department of Criminal Justice Services has initiated training, technical assistance, and conferences to help communities achieve the goals. Pennsylvania's community-based planning has led to basic changes in the way the State thinks about crime prevention funding. The State is now much more responsive to what its communities need, based on their analyses of local data and local priority setting. Telephone numbers and web sites from which to obtain further information about each State's programs