Step 1: Assess the problem and its scope

Community coalitions come together for many reasons. Sometimes, a significant event (i.e.: an alcohol or other drug-related tragedy) mobilizes community members to work together to create change.  Sometimes, a growing recognition that alcohol, tobacco and other drugs are negatively impacting a community reaches critical mass, motivating community members to join together.  Community coalitions can also simply evolve from existing prevention efforts.

One of the first steps of any community coalition is coalescing around an accurate picture of the problem that coalition is addressing.

Communities can gather that data in a number of ways.  National data on alcohol, tobacco and other drug use patterns is readily available.  Local data is often accessible, though some limitations can exist, particularly if a school district does not want to share school- or district-specific alcohol, tobacco and other drug use data.

Some of the sources community coalitions utilize to gather data include:

• Community law enforcement
• Community court systems
• Liquor control entities
• Community health centers and hospitals
• Community school districts
• Community treatment and prevention agencies

Coalitions should already be thinking about evaluation of their efforts at this stage. When a coalition plans for evaluation early in its work, the resulting information from the evaluation process is typically more comprehensive and useful.  Step 5 describes evaluation and monitoring.

Some of the tasks involved in the assessment stage:

• Collect data and other information already compiled by agencies, organizations, and groups in the community.
• Solicit additional information from others through surveys, interviews, and formative research and from external substance abuse information sources.
• Compile, analyze, and interpret your information, often one of the first tasks taken on by one of the individuals, agencies, or groups committed to collaborating in your environmental prevention efforts.

The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) provides Coalition Assessment Tools for communities to obtain information and perspective about alcohol, tobacco, and other drug problems from community members. Access the CADCA primer on conducting a community assessment.

Community Readiness has more information, including recommended tools for assessing community readiness.

Continue to Step 2: Moblize and build capacity
Return to Ohio Center for Coalition Excellence page