The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change.

The Analyzing Problems and Goals Toolkit guides practitioners through conducting assessments of community needs and resources, including the following steps:

• Justify the choice of the priority problem or goal to be addressed.
• Frame the problem or goal to be addressed.
• Review the naming and framing of the problem or goal.
• Ask questions about the problem or goal to identify key behaviors, actors, and consequences.
• Analyze “root” causes of the problem to identify the environmental conditions and related behaviors that might contribute to the problem or goal.
• Identify restraining and driving forces that affect the problem or goal.
• Find relationships between the community’s problems and goals.
• Identify personal factors that may contribute to the problem or goal.
• Identify environmental factors that may contribute to the problem/goal.
• Identify targets and agents of change for addressing the community problem or goal.