As the issues with which individuals and communities struggle on a daily basis have become more urgent (e.g., unemployment, increasing crime, and overburdened health care), the tensions inherent in the relationship between college and community have become more apparent. Despite criticism that their missions are already overextended, some community colleges are seeking to respond to critical community needs. In 1991, the Hitachi Foundation funded the League for Innovation in the Community College to develop and pilot test a process that could be replicated by community colleges nationwide to build the capacity of local citizens to address critical community issues. One of the intended outcomes of the project is the development of guidelines describing how to plan and conduct community forums. The second major objective is to build the capacity of the nine pilot colleges and communities to deal with real problems. One of the pilot projects was a community forum conducted at Delta College, in Michigan, that focused on unemployment, the major problem facing the Tri-Cities area. Over 400 area residents attended a forum entitled, "Now That You've Lost Your Job, How Are You Going To Get One Back?" After all of the pilot projects were completed, the participating colleges shared the insights they gained in conducting community forums and found that they had common problems, including the difficulty of focusing on a topic and the tendency to underestimate the work involved. In spite of such concerns, the colleges all reported that their forums helped their local communities confront wide-ranging and controversial topics. (ECC)