Step 2: Identify Local Needs, Strengths, and Resources

Access to housing, education, jobs, health care, and healthy foods all contribute to your well-being, and the availability of these essentials varies across America. One challenge associated with rural living: geographic isolation. This barrier is often navigated through the sharing of resources and collaboration – both are strengths and tenets of rural communities. For example, public health departments may serve multiple roles aside from providing connections to health resources and services. They may act as a community hub and clinical safety net, offering integrated services (e.g., behavioral health and substance use prevention; maternal health; and women, infants, and children services). They may also have challenges with staffing, reaching underserved communities, and accessing specialists and niche health services.  

About 24.4% of the US population lives in rural areas (Ramakrishnan & Suandi, 2024). In Colorado, 24 of the total 64 counties are rural, and 12% of the state's population consists of rural residents (Mills et al., 2025).

• What challenges is your community facing around this issue?
• What strengths already exist (e.g., strong youth groups, local champions, social media savvy)?
• What resources can you tap into? 
  (e.g., funding, volunteers, meeting spaces, translation support, local artists)

Use a simple community mapping tool or group brainstorm to list these out, audience research (interviews, coalition development) to identify barriers and motivations of each audience