This article analyzes the steps which preceded the closing of Massachusetts' large training schools in order to use the community as the site for the processes necessary for effective rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. Training schools have been described as poor houses for neglected children, tending to increase the alienation and crystalize the criminal self-concept of the offender. The Massachusetts Department of Youth Services departed from traditional approaches in two ways: (1) it was the first state to close its correctional youth institutions; and (2) it has developed many innovative and promising community-based alternatives for its troubled youth, without a major increase in budget or personnel. This pamphlet examines, very briefly, several of these alternative approaches. (HV)