The paper reports the experience of the local health council (CMS) in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, from the introduction of a Program of Continuing Education, with a methodology that made it possible to boost its actions, in a positive relation of social organization mobilized in the defense of social rights. The main objective was to provide the councilors with tools for accessing and understanding health-related information, so that their communication and protagonism in the social control of the SUS could be improved. This methodology is still being developed; it takes into account the heterogeneity of the group of counsilors, who have distinct individual paths in the exercise of political representation. The results of this work are perceived through the enhanced participation of the CMS in municipal debates about health policies. The council has been at the center of the network of social control, making the intransigent defense of the right to health, and has also conquered the respect to its deliberative role in the SUS's management. In order to achieve these results, it was essential to guarantee, in the process of Continuing Education, the autonomy and authorship of the Health Council.
Continuing Education; Social control; Autonomy
