Despite the difficulties emerging in relationships between paraprofessionals and agency professionals--difficulties related to basic social cleavages (black-white, community-professional, and participation-authority)--the utilization of paraprofessionals will continue to increase because of community desire to influence the staffs of the agency or institution, to have an "inside" (community) voice in the school, for example. More community attention will now be directed toward how paraprofessionals are selected, trained, utilized, and how professionals are trained in working with them (learning from them as well as imparting knowledge to them). Moreover, there will be an increasing focus on the paraprofessional's role in producing reorganization and expansion of the human service system. Several related trends may coalesce with the paraprofessional movement to produce such change: the demand for accountability of the professions, the demand for community control and decentralization, the whole new involvement of the ghetto in regard to the human service agenda, and the great concern among increasing numbers of professionals regarding the nature of their profession. The paraprofessional by his very existence "inside the system" may increase the relevance of services and improve contact through his bridge or two-way communication role, functioning as a translator, expeditor, ombudsman, and advocate. (JS)