The role of community services and continuing education in the community college must be carefully analyzed by educational leaders in the changing milieu of the 1980's. Never has close affiliation with the parent institution been more critical to the welfare of continuing education, which gains strength from being mainstreamed in terms of financial assistance, space, supporting services, and the less tangible value derived from being "college." Although continuing education has long been an accepted purpose for many community colleges, when pressures arise from the need to retrench, support among administrators, middle-level management, and faculty may change and may not be enough to ensure a viable, responsive program. The regular full-time faculty is a special group with a special relationship to the community services program. Because of their strong voice in institutional management and its affect on the allocation of resources, the support of this faculty group, even more than that of the part-time faculty that teaches in the continuing education program, must be cultivated to strengthen the program. Another way of strengthening the community service program is to establish credibility by avoiding claims concerning finances or enrollments that cannot be supported. A final element in ensuring the continuing viability of the community service program is responding to changing educational needs by adding new and eliminating low-priority programs. (LAL)