Understanding your population (client/agency) is an important place to start. This is the research you need to conduct before you can conduct research. For this assignment, you will be gaining a better understanding of your population and the social issues they face. It helps you build a case for why an intervention is needed. It will also help guide you later as your determine culturally competent approaches to interventions with your population.
You will want to search background information sources that give context and prevalence information rather than going into academic literature where a study has been conducted. That will come later. Background information sources can be scholarly, but usually aren't found in academic journals. Instead, this type of information is found in things like encyclopedias and textbooks, government reports and data, and organizational or agency websites.
Encyclopedias, along with textbooks, give good overview information about a client or population. They can help you determine the population most impacted by a social issue as well as relevant policies, timelines, and other important information to consider.
Search broadly for things like "substance use" or "adolescents."
Data sources help you build a case regarding the prevalence of a social issue among your chosen population or among the population as a whole. This shows evidence of the need for an intervention.
OR
Perform a scoped Google search for statistical information online. Here's an example of a search that is limited to .gov webpages:
Search: Dallas homeless statistics site:gov
Other endings:
site:edu
site:org