You See a Problem in Your Community. Where Do You Start?

By Dr. Teresa A. Smith and Rev. Dr. Terence K. Leathers

You keep seeing the same problem. Children have nowhere safe to go after school. Older adults are isolated. Families can’t find affordable food, transportation, or support after a loss. You want to help, but the problem feels too large, and you don’t know whether to start a program, form an organization, apply for a grant, or call a meeting.

Start by slowing down long enough to understand what you’re seeing. Concern can move you to act, but concern alone doesn’t tell you what the community needs. Write the problem in one plain sentence without adding your solution. “Teenagers need a recreation center” already assumes the answer, while “teenagers say they have few safe places to gather after school” gives you room to investigate.

Next, talk with the people who live with the issue. Ask what they are experiencing, what they have tried, what gets in the way, and what they believe would help. Listen to residents, service providers, local leaders, churches, schools, and others who see different parts of the problem. People aren’t simply sources of information, and they shouldn’t be treated as a project someone else has come to fix.

Listening matters even more when a community has faced loss, displacement, violence, or repeated disappointment. A new idea may sound hopeful to you while someone else may remember a program that disappeared or a promise that wasn’t kept. Resistance doesn’t always mean people don’t care. It may mean you need to understand the history, build trust, and invite people into the work before asking them to support it.

Then compare what you heard with information you can verify. Look at school reports, public records, local surveys, service waitlists, or other reliable sources connected to the issue. Look at both what the community needs and what resources it already has. Numbers can show how often something happens, while conversations can help you understand what those numbers don't show.

Before creating anything new, find out what already exists. Another group may offer part of the solution but lack transportation, volunteers, space, funding, or public awareness. A school may have families who need help, while a church has an unused room and a neighborhood resident has years of relevant experience. When you map those pieces, you may discover that the first need isn’t a new organization. It may be a stronger connection between people and resources already present.

Now choose one part of the problem you can address responsibly. Decide who you want to help, what change you’re trying to create, what action you will test, who needs to be involved, and how you will know whether it helped. Start small enough to learn. A small pilot with clear responsibilities can teach you more than spending months building a large plan around assumptions.

This is also the point to ask whether you are the right person to lead, support, convene, or step aside. Caring about a problem doesn’t automatically make one person the owner of the solution. Community work becomes stronger when leadership is shared with those closest to the issue and when each partner knows what they are responsible for doing.

Seeing the problem is the beginning, but your first move isn’t to chase money or announce a program. Your first move is to listen, verify what you're seeing, and understand what resources are already present. Once you can clearly describe the problem without assuming you already know the solution, you're ready to ask a more important question: What does this community really need?

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