I am trying to fix my credit and get back on track but i need help, i don't know where to go to get started.?

I ran into some problems and ran up my credit cards now im having a hard time paying them off. I would like to consolidate them and pay them off but i have no idea where to go to start this process. I hear a lot of people saying that all the debt consolidation places arent the best that they i would pay them and they would pay my credit cards but they dont always pay it on time and i want to make my credit better not worse with late payments. Can anyone direct me in the right directionl