A guide for community leaders, extension staff, and community or rural development practitioners outlines the evolution of a regional training model for community-based problem solving in rural areas experiencing economic decline. The paper discusses the model's underlying concepts and implementation process and includes descriptions of four workshops held in the western United States. It describes training methods and cites examples of participants in Montana, New Mexico, and Washington who applied the process to local situations, and speculates about further applications. Goals for workshop participants representing 29 communities included becoming more knowledgeable about fiscal, social, economic, and demographic consequences of decline, resources available to help cope with decline, processes of informing and involving people at home, and strategies for economic and social recovery. Aspects of workshop development included multidisciplinary approach, needs assessment and action planning, impact assessment, management and mitigation framework, case study, and action planning process. Success of the training model is attributed to the synergism of the team approach, the model's transferability and adaptability, the multiplier effect potential, and trainer-team followup. (LFL)