The Office of Programs for Alcohol and Drug Problems is the designated "Single State Authority" for the planning and development of alcohol and drug programs. It is within the State Mental Health Division, and is the interface between the Division, the counties, and the federal government with regard to alcohol and drug programs. The Division's Office of Management Support Services (MSS) is charged with the responsibility of developing an evaluation system for programs. This is being done in regard to the needs of programs and decision-makers concerned with programs. The Program Office is now providing input to MSS largely through this practicum paper, and through the involvement of the author with staff of MSS and the Division's Task Force on Evaluation Systems. The goal of the practicum, and the involvement with MSS, which will continue, is to assist in the development of an evaluation system that will enable the Program Office to better perform the tasks of assessing programs, and planning for this further development. While the subject is beyond the scope of this paper, such an evaluation system would be useful to individuals, organizations, and high level decision-makers outside the Program Office. For an evaluation system to be of use to the Program Office (or the other decision makers involved with alcohol and drug programs), it must provide systematic information regarding the extent to which the alcohol and drug service system and elements within it are able to: Identify the problems of potential clientele; Assign or establish goals which clients may realistically be helped to attain; and Provide treatment or services which enable them to reach their goals. Beyond answering process oriented questions such as these, the system must develop information concerning the impact, on the lives of clients, and on the community, of the services. It must provide this feedback in a way that is usable to programs so they may alter approaches to client problems, to the Program Office, and to the hierarchy of government officials responsible for programs.