CCIH Webinars, Community-Based Prevention and Care
Keeping Faith-Based Community Health Programs Sustainable Through Change
CCIH held a member forum July 23, 2026 on what helps community-based programs last. We heard from CCIH 30×30 Health Systems Initiative commitment makers who shared examples from their work, focusing on what makes their programs sustainable. Community-based programs are often the most trusted and consistent point of care for underserved communities globally. As funding shifts and resources tighten, faith-based organizations are making difficult decisions about how to keep these programs strong and sustainable.
Featuring:
- Dr. Charsey Cherry, Community Systems Strengthening Advisor, Global Health Action
- Joseph Baraka, Chargé des Programmes au DOM ECC Sud-Kivu presenting for Dr. Nicolas Mihuhi Rusati, Coordinator of Medical Works, Département des Œuvres Médicales – Église du Christ au Congo
- Rev. Troy Lewis, Executive Director, Expanded Church Response
The session was moderated by Dr. Laura Smelter, Founder of Care Well Global
Below are some suggestions and practices the speakers found helpful.
- Sustainability is not simply finding another donor.
- It is a combination of community ownership, capable local organizations, trusted church and health-system relationships, practical support for volunteers, financing that fits the mission, readiness to adapt, and systems that continue beyond a project cycle.
- Communities cannot solve every structural problem themselves.
- Government financing, safe operating conditions, adequate infrastructure, reliable energy, medicines, and appropriate equipment remain essential. Community initiative is powerful, but it should not be used to transfer all responsibility or risk onto people who already have the fewest resources.
Build ownership and accountability
1. Treat communities as owners, not recipients. Co-design programs with community members and let them make decisions about priorities, delivery, and adaptation.
2. Be a partner, not a parent. Organizations should provide technical support, connections, and resources without taking control away from local institutions.
3. Use community-selected leadership. As in the Haiti clinic example, ask communities to choose trusted people for governance and management roles.
4. Keep programs aligned with locally defined needs. Do not reshape a program merely because unrelated funding is available.
5. Create regular two-way feedback loops. Report results back to communities and ask what is working, what is failing, and what must change.
Strengthen the organization behind the program
6. Invest in management and operational systems, not only activities. Programs need sound financial management, human resources, procurement, information, monitoring, and reporting systems.
7. Standardize essential tools. Use common indicator definitions, reporting forms, training materials, case-management tools, and financial procedures across partners while allowing contextual adaptation.
8. Document roles and succession plans. Staff mobility and insecurity make it essential to identify deputies, cross-train personnel, and maintain clear handover records.
9. Track a small set of decision-useful indicators. Collect data that managers and communities will actually use, rather than overburdening volunteers with donor-driven reporting.
10. Preserve the “connective tissue” of programs. Budget for convening, supervision, communication, coordination, field visits, and monitoring “the mortar” that connects volunteer activities.
Support and retain volunteers and community workers
11. Do not assume volunteerism is cost-free. Cover reasonable transport, communication, meals, protective supplies, and other costs that volunteers would otherwise subsidize personally.
12. Link volunteers to livelihood options where appropriate. Savings groups, business training, cooperatives, farming, or animal husbandry can reduce the financial burden on community health workers.
13. Professionalize community health workers carefully. Link them formally to clinics and health systems, define their scope, provide supervision, recognize their contribution, and create pathways for advancement.
14. Build peer support and recognition. Regular gatherings, certificates, public appreciation, mentoring, and celebration of small wins can sustain motivation.
15. Design workloads around people’s actual lives. Training and service expectations must account for caregiving, seasonal work, insecurity, migration, and women’s disproportionate responsibilities.
Make training locally usable
16. Adapt both content and process. Appropriate subject matter is not enough; delivery methods must fit how community workers learn and work.
17. Use local languages and understand their nuances. Literal translation can miss cultural meaning, social relationships, or locally understood health terms.
18. Use practice-based instruction. Demonstrations, role-play, case examples, pictures, and coached field practice are more useful than lecture-heavy training.
19. Train pastors and other trusted messengers. Give faith leaders accurate health knowledge and practical messages they can share with congregations.
20. Provide refresher training and supportive supervision. One-time training is rarely sufficient.
Work through trusted institutions and networks
21. Build on the long-term presence of churches. Churches are not limited to donor project cycles and often retain trust, networks, facilities, and volunteers after projects close.
22. Connect churches with clinics and government health authorities. Referral pathways, commodity access, technical standards, and reporting are stronger when these actors work together.
23. Use church platforms to address harmful beliefs. Leaders can encourage prenatal care, facility delivery, early treatment for children, blood donation, and reduction of stigma.
24. Frame health engagement theologically as service and stewardship. Church leaders often respond when health is connected to loving one’s neighbor, equipping others, and building systems that endure.
25. Share faith-based success stories. Communicating how churches helped reverse HIV-related stigma and strengthen care can motivate local actors and attract more appropriate partners.
Prepare for change and crisis
26. Assume change will occur. Include scenario planning for funding loss, staff departure, insecurity, technology failure, epidemics, and population movement.
27. Create simple trigger-based contingency plans. Define in advance what happens when electricity fails, a road becomes unsafe, a key worker leaves, or an outbreak begins.
28. Respond quickly and preserve what works. Changes in program should protect the program’s core purpose rather than chasing every new opportunity.
29. Cross-train teams and decentralize capability. Programs are less vulnerable when knowledge and authority are distributed across several people and locations.
30. Celebrate small wins during disruption. Visible progress helps workers and communities maintain hope and momentum.
Diversify and improve financing
31. Pursue funding that fits the mission. Lead with the organization’s proven strengths and local priorities instead of changing programs to fit every available grant.
32. Explore nontraditional funding sources. Consider local philanthropy, churches, diaspora networks, member contributions, social enterprise, pooled purchasing, cooperatives, and local government partnerships.
33. Use modest user fees only with safeguards. The Haiti example allowed small payments but did not turn away people unable to pay. Any fee system should include clear exemptions and transparency.
34. Develop community risk-pooling mechanisms. Mutual health organizations, community health insurance, and savings groups may improve access when designed for the local economy.