The Community Health Agent (CHA) occupies an important mediation place between community and family health strategy (FHS). Although, in a critical view, we consider that the working of this professional, mainly in high social vulnerability locals, evidences the complexity and contradictions which must be discussed in an ethical-political perspective. The objective of this paper was to analyze and discuss aspects of the community organization and acquaintanceship that contributes for the construction of the CHA's social participation processes. It was a qualitative research, made in a health family unit in Cubatao, which had the participative research as a beacon for the procedures used, emphasizing the participative observation and semi-structured interviews. The results indicates that the intense sense of community and the proximity to community political forces contribute for the social participation process, otherwise the predominance of assistencialism and fear triggered by violence situations.
Community Health Agent; social participation; vulnerability; family health strategy; community