COMM Facilitator Overview

Welcome to the Facilitator’s Manual for Community Health Committees (COMM). This manual has been prepared for those who will be responsible for the capacity building and mentoring support of community health groups, referred to as COMMs. (Note that while the generic term COMM is used in this manual, when actually working in the field, any pre-existing title of the community group should be retained.) COMM is the title given to a community health committee that is empowered to coordinate and manage activities, leading to strengthened community-based organisations, structures and networks, and improved community health. This process is known as ‘community systems strengthening’ or CSS. This manual provides all the information a facilitator will need to successfully contribute to COMM capacity building.

STRUCTURE OF THE FACILITATOR’S MANUAL

This manual is made up of individual sessions, distributed as separate documents. Facilitators may or may not carry out all sessions with a COMM, depending on the unique needs of each group, as explained in this Overview for the Facilitator. The complete manual is made up of the following:

1. Overview for the Facilitator
2. Facilitator's Manual - Appreciative Discovery
3. Facilitator's Manual - Session 1 Linkages and Networking
4. Facilitator's Manual - Session 2 Supporting CHWs
5. Facilitator's Manual - Session 3A Root Cause Analysis - Light Version
6. Facilitator's Manual - Session 3b: Root Cause Analysis - Robust Version
7. Facilitator's Manual - Session 4 Mobilizing for Action
8. Facilitator's Manual - Session 5 Tracking Health
9. Facilitator's Manual - Session 6 Reporting Health
10. Companion Document: Health and Nutrition Sector Approach

An overview of the COMM Model: http://www.wvi.org/health/community-committees