This paper suggests that community psychology may be going through an identity crisis because of its lack of empirical demonstrations of community intervention effectiveness, and an ecologically valid intervention research base. Although the majority of research in community psychology has used an individualistic paradigm that conceptualizes problems at an ecological level, a paradigm shift is presented that emphasizes an ecological approach intervening at the natural social systems level. An evaluation of a community child care program incorporating the model is provided as well as the conceptual framework, technology, methodology, and beginning stages of an empirical base describing cost benefit and cost effectiveness equations generated from the ecological model. (Author/JAC)