This is an account of the first three years of the MIDNY Project, a pilot community resource development project in the five-county Central New York Region surrounding the city of Syracuse. The project was set up in 1966 by New York State Cooperative Extension with special funds provided by the Federal Extension Service. It was one of the first Cooperative Extension attempts to apply its community resources development strategies to a complex metropolitan area. The project is still in operation, under a three-year extension of its educational and people-oriented tradition to contribute importantly to the resolution of social problems (urban problems in particular) related to comprehensive planning and decision-making processes. Specific objectives included: development of the sense of a region, initiation of county planning programs; establishment of working relationships with various organizations; training of extension agents in community development; establishing contact among individuals and organizations with common interests; and making research findings available to regional decision makers. (PT)