If cpan is just not working for you and you feel lost, the Catalyst community would love to help you out. The best place for questions is the #catalyst IRC channel at irc.perl.org. Users, developers, and other helpful people monitor this channel and are happy to answer Catalyst-related questions.

For longer questions, e-mail is probably a better means of communication. Catalyst has an English-language users list that you can sign up for at http://lists.scsys.co.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/catalyst.

As Catalyst becomes more popular, new lists are being created for other languages. Catalyst-de was recently created for German-speaking users, and there's interest in creating a Japanese-language mailing list. Many readers of the English list speak other languages, so if you're having trouble with English, say so, and someone can likely assist you in your native language. Catalyst-de still exists but does not really have any traffic anymore. Most of the community and (therefore) the knowledge are now found on the English mailing list.

Finally, the main project website, http://www.catalystframework.org/, provides links to useful community tools including the Catalyst wiki, Planet Catalyst (a collection of Catalyst-related blog postings), and the Catalyst Advent Calendar (a mini cookbook published every December).

As always, before posting to the mailing list or asking on IRC, do a quick Google search to see if you're experiencing a common problem.