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This paper is part of the doctoral thesis Profile of Community Health Workers in the region of Juiz de Fora, MG, and presents a profile of Community Health Agents (CHA) from the perspective of family health teams, of users and themselves. It discusses the models and experiences on the CHA practiced in Brazil before the initiative of Ceará State, in the 1980's. It contextualizes the movements for the successful reform of the CHA, which characterize a central human resource and strategic for the implementation of health promotion actions, enabling the development of basic community-related actions. It shows that community health agents are a key factor to enable the support, implementation and development of basic community-related actions, to expand them and strengthen them nationwide, but health promotion concerns not only the sector itself nor a single health professional. It is the result of inter-sectoral actions acting in general and quality of life determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]