In the community, people work in their everyday lives to create health, drawing on community resources that aren’talways considered part of a ‘health system’. The everyday community resources that people draw on to createhealth are many and varied. These resources can be thought of as a complex system. Some resources may be wellknown, but others may be under-utilised, and require a systematic approach to help unlock their potential.Communities are often the most effective and appropriate agents of change for issues that affect their health andthe health of the environment they live in. A local and community-centred approach to developing interventions isessential for long-term sustainability. However, those at the frontline rarely have a stake in designing relevant healthinterventions, and the informal health systems they already use are often overlooked. In addition, community members or local decision-makers face a lack of accessible data, and struggle to choose effective and sustainable interventions without a deep understanding of the local context.Working across three diverse field sites in Kenya, this study used a mixture of participatory approaches to understand community concepts of positive health (community health building blocks) and ways in which communitiescan pursue and sustain health agendas driven by local priorities. The results of this research will be used to develop 45a community toolkit and decision-making platform to fill gaps in community information and to support communityled action for people’s and ecosystems’ health.
