In 1992, the Division of Diabetes Translation developed the Diabetes Today program to train representatives of state and local health departments on how to develop, implement, and evaluate community-based diabetes prevention and control programs. This commentary briefly describes the evolution of the Diabetes Today program in the United States. The Diabetes Today program utilizes a training curriculum to increase expertise in community assessment; coalition building; adult-learn principle, program planning, implementation, and evaluation. The training curriculum contains four modules: defining diabetes and mobilizing a community response; assessing diabetes in your community; planning your diabetes program, and evaluating your diabetes program. Two versions of the curriculum have been utilized--one in English and the other in Spanish. This commentary presents two examples of Diabetes Today efforts--The Missouri Diabetes Control and Prevention (English) and the United States/Mexico Border Diabetes Project (Spanish version)--to briefly describe how this program planning, implementation, and evaluation model can generate a community response to diabetes.