Recognizing the need for a health manpower planning system that would insure the recruitment, training, utilization, and retention of area residents as skilled providers of health care, Comprehensive Health Planning, Inc., Metropolitan Chicago (CHP), and the West Side Health Planning Organization (WSHPO) embarked on a 1-year project to demonstrate the feasibility of Health Manpower Planning. The project concentrated on the allied health fields, establishing a two-phase work program of data gathering and project implementation. Twelve cooperative goals were established and methods and procedures determined. Major areas of concern were: (1) utilization and attrition, (2) hospital training programs, (3) college level education programs, and (4) counseling and recruitment. Two major barriers to effective planning were a need for further cooperation between health care facilities and academic institutions, and educating the community to the opportunities in the health fields. Two conferences addressed these problems, and 10 recommendations for further cooperative planning were outlined. Four new programs growing out of this project are described to demonstrate the need for a coordinating agency in a comprehensive health care delivery system. An 80-page appendix offers survey instruments and five project working papers. (JC)