The advent of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) has changed the way community-based organizations (CBOs) can serve unemployed youth, according to the findings of the National Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC) survey of CBOs; analysis of reports, surveys, and studies of the JTPA; and conversations with NYEC members and others concerned with employment of youth. This research shows that JTPA has, by design, changed the program priorities of CBOs as well as the priorities of everyone else in the employment and training field. The almost single purpose of providing trained workers for the private sector has eliminated the human resource development and human service goals that had been a part of employment and training services. JTPA has given priority to serving the job-ready or nearly job-ready; in the short run, the return on investment is greater for these people. However, younger teens, the severely disadvantaged, handicapped persons, teenage parents, and minority youths are now being served less frequently because these persons require more time and support services than those who are more acceptable to employers and thus quicker to place. Since CBOs have traditionally served these least fortunate persons, their role is changing. CBOs are being forced to function more like vocational schools and community colleges, which they are not, and then they are being criticized for being less professional, having less credentialed teachers, and using older equipment. Changes are needed, and CBOs must work together with Congress to redirect JTPA toward serving the needs of high-risk youth. (KC)