Health Literacy and Community Empowerment Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Public Health Officers, Health Promotion Specialists and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PH-041

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience in public health, healthcare delivery, social care, health promotion or community programmes.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Low health literacy can lead to missed appointments, medication errors, delayed care, poor uptake of prevention services and avoidable distrust. The challenge is not limited to a person's reading ability. Forms, consent processes, digital channels, clinical language, risk messages and referral systems can all place unreasonable demands on patients, families and communities. Public health teams must identify these barriers, communicate clearly and involve communities in decisions that affect access, safety and health outcomes.

This course equips participants to assess health literacy needs, segment priority audiences and design practical responses. Participants use the CDC Clear Communication Index, plain-language methods, teach-back, co-design principles, asset-based community development and behaviour change models. They learn how to involve community representatives ethically, establish peer education approaches, address misinformation, communicate during health incidents and build interventions that account for language, disability, digital exclusion and trust.

Instruction combines concise technical briefings with realistic cases from primary care, vaccination programmes, maternal health, chronic disease management and community outreach. Participants analyse communication materials, service journeys and community data; practise message development and facilitation techniques; and apply evaluation methods to their own context. Each participant leaves with a health literacy improvement action plan, communication review checklist, stakeholder engagement approach and evaluation framework that can be adapted for a service, programme or population.

The course is suited to public health, health promotion, clinical, social care, NGO and community-facing professionals responsible for improving access to information, preventive services and participation in health decisions.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess health literacy barriers using population data, service journeys and audience segmentation
  • Apply the CDC Clear Communication Index to evaluate public health materials
  • Use plain-language, teach-back and numeracy techniques in health communication
  • Design co-design processes with community representatives and advisory groups
  • Develop behaviour-informed interventions using COM-B and behaviour change techniques
  • Create risk communication messages using message maps and uncertainty statements
  • Build an evaluation framework using RE-AIM, process indicators and outcome measures
  • Produce a health literacy improvement action plan with governance, milestones and risks

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Assess communication and service barriers affecting priority populations
  • Write clearer health messages for print, digital and face-to-face channels
  • Facilitate more credible community consultation and co-design sessions
  • Respond to misinformation with evidence-based, respectful communication methods
  • Present a practical health literacy improvement case to managers and partners

For your organisation

  • Reduce avoidable confusion in referrals, consent, self-care and appointment processes
  • Improve uptake of prevention, screening and chronic disease support services
  • Strengthen trust through accountable community participation and feedback mechanisms
  • Identify inequities affecting language groups, disabled people and digitally excluded residents
  • Establish measurable health literacy interventions with clear ownership and review cycles

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify health literacy barriers and their effects on access, equity and health outcomes.

  • Functional, interactive and critical health literacy within WHO definitions
  • Social determinants shaping access, comprehension, trust and health action
  • Identify literacy demands in referral pathways, consent and self-care
  • Distinguish individual skills from service, community and policy responsibilities
  • Health literacy as a mediator of equity, safety and outcomes
  • Map priority populations using disaggregated service-use and outcome data

Participants can plan a proportionate assessment of health literacy needs for a defined population.

  • Health Literacy Questionnaire domains matched to local assessment questions
  • Rapid needs assessment combining surveys, interviews, observation and administrative data
  • Sampling decisions for marginalised groups, language communities and rural residents
  • Plain-language interview protocols that minimise shame, acquiescence and social desirability
  • Triangulate quantitative findings with lived-experience accounts and journey observations
  • Segment audiences by literacy barriers, readiness, context and communication preferences

Participants can create and review health information that people can find, understand and act upon.

  • CDC Clear Communication Index used to score public-facing materials
  • Plain Language principles for headings, verbs, numeracy and action steps
  • Teach-back method for checking understanding during consultations and discharge conversations
  • Chunk-and-check sequencing for medicine instructions, referrals and appointment preparation
  • Risk communication using absolute frequencies, visual aids and balanced framing
  • Translation, interpretation and cultural adaptation distinguished in multilingual communications
  • Accessibility checks for disability, digital exclusion and low vision

Participants can structure inclusive community participation with clear roles, safeguards and decision rights.

  • Co-design principles equalise participation, compensate contributors and close feedback loops
  • Experience-based co-design maps emotional touchpoints along patient and caregiver journeys
  • Community advisory board terms of reference, membership and decision rights
  • Arnstein's Ladder distinguishes consultation, partnership and delegated community power
  • Facilitation techniques for inclusive dialogue, conflict management and quiet voices
  • Document consent, safeguarding boundaries and ethical community participation

Participants can select community-based approaches that address behavioural and practical barriers to health action.

  • Asset-based community development maps associations, institutions, connectors and local capacities
  • Freirean problem-posing dialogue links reflection, action and collective learning
  • COM-B diagnoses capability, opportunity and motivation barriers to health actions
  • Health Belief Model identifies perceived risk, benefits, barriers and cues
  • Peer educator selection, preparation, supervision and referral escalation protocols
  • Social network mapping identifies trusted messengers and information pathways

Participants can design a targeted intervention with measurable objectives, delivery methods and operational controls.

  • Logic models connect inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and assumptions
  • Behaviour change techniques selected using the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy
  • SMART objectives specify audience, behaviour, setting, timeframe and intended change
  • Intervention matrices align barriers, messages, channels, owners and resources
  • Low-literacy formats include pictograms, demonstrations, audio and peer support
  • Implementation plans assign governance, budgets, procurement and risk controls

Participants can address digital information barriers and misinformation without excluding offline populations.

  • Digital health literacy covers searching, appraising, creating and sharing information
  • eHEALS-informed questions identify confidence gaps in online health-information use
  • Misinformation response uses prebunking, source checks and respectful correction
  • Social media content calendars balance reach, interaction, safeguarding and moderation
  • Privacy-by-design protects personal data in community messaging and digital referrals
  • Offline alternatives prevent exclusion where connectivity, devices or skills are limited

Participants can prepare credible, timely and community-responsive communication during health incidents.

  • Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication principles guide timely protective messaging
  • Message maps prepare three key points, evidence and anticipated questions
  • Uncertainty statements explain what is known, unknown and being monitored
  • Rumour logs classify claims, sources, reach, harm and response priority
  • Trusted spokesperson plans account for language, legitimacy and media access
  • Two-way feedback channels surface concerns during outbreaks and service disruptions

Participants can measure reach, understanding, behaviour and equity effects from health literacy interventions.

  • RE-AIM assesses reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance
  • Process indicators track material distribution, attendance, referrals and message exposure
  • Outcome indicators measure comprehension, self-efficacy, service uptake and adherence
  • Disaggregated dashboards reveal inequities by language, age, disability and location
  • Pre-post measures, comparison groups and contribution analysis support attribution claims
  • Participant feedback loops inform adaptation without compromising evaluation integrity

Participants can produce an implementable health literacy action plan for their own service or programme.

  • Stakeholder maps identify influence, interest, accountability and partnership opportunities
  • RACI matrices clarify decision rights across public health, clinical and community teams
  • Health literacy action plans prioritise populations, barriers, interventions and milestones
  • Budget narratives justify staffing, materials, translation and community contributor costs
  • Risk registers address misinformation, exclusion, safeguarding and political sensitivities
  • Implementation review cycles use data, community feedback and corrective actions
  • Personal application commitments specify first actions, sponsors and evidence of progress

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Health literacy needs-assessment template
  2. CDC Clear Communication Index review checklist
  3. Community advisory board terms-of-reference template
  4. Behaviour-informed intervention logic model
  5. Risk communication message-map template
  6. Health literacy improvement action plan

Who should attend

  • Public Health Officers — responsible for prevention campaigns and population health programmes
  • Health Promotion Specialists — designing understandable, behaviour-informed health communications
  • Community Health Workers — supporting people to use services, information and referrals
  • Primary Care Managers — improving patient communication and service accessibility
  • NGO Programme Managers — planning accountable community health interventions
  • Clinical Educators — strengthening clear communication and teach-back among care teams

Skills and tools covered

Health literacy assessmentPlain-language communicationCommunity co-designBehaviour change designRisk communicationProgramme evaluation

Tools and standards

CDC Clear Communication Index, COM-B model, RE-AIM framework, Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce models, standards and communication techniques, followed by case work drawn from public health campaigns and community services. Small-group analysis examines service journeys, audience data, health materials and misinformation scenarios. Participants practise applying plain-language criteria, message maps, stakeholder analysis and evaluation measures. Facilitated discussion compares approaches for different populations and delivery settings. Individual application planning converts the methods into a focused improvement plan for each participant's workplace.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience in public health, healthcare delivery, social care, health promotion or community programmes. Familiarity with local health priorities, service pathways and the populations served will help participants apply the methods quickly. Participants should be comfortable discussing programme data, communication materials and stakeholder relationships. No prior formal training in health literacy, behaviour change science, evaluation, research methods or community participation is required. Statistical software, clinical qualifications and specialist digital marketing experience are not required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need basic familiarity with public health, healthcare, social care or community programmes. The course introduces the health literacy, behaviour change and evaluation frameworks used, so prior specialist training is not expected.

Participants should bring an example of a health leaflet, web page, referral process, campaign brief or community programme they want to improve. Materials can be anonymised where they contain sensitive information.

It is designed for public health, health promotion, primary care, NGO, social care and community-facing professionals. It is particularly relevant to staff responsible for communication, outreach, prevention programmes or patient access.

General health promotion courses often focus on programme planning and prevention priorities. This course concentrates on whether people can access, understand, assess and use health information and services, alongside meaningful community participation.

Participants can review existing materials using the CDC Clear Communication Index, improve service communication using teach-back and develop a targeted action plan. The templates support immediate use in campaigns, clinics, outreach programmes and referral systems.

The five training days run from 08:30 to 16:30 and provide approximately 32.5 contact hours. Time is divided among health literacy assessment, communication design, community participation, intervention planning, digital and crisis communication, evaluation and action planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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