Study that focuses on the implementation process of Family Health Program (FHP) in a community of Santa Cruz, district of Rio de Janeiro city. This community is characterized by a high social and sanitary risk marked by violence. The objectives were: (1) to identify strategies used by local managers in the implantation of eight teams of FHP in this community; (2) to describe the mechanism of community participation in the implantation process and, (3) to analyse the nurse's insertion in as this process coordinator. Among these findings, the importance of social control is emphasized at legitimation process that FHP strategy causes to users, the nurse's management function to construct the local autonomy and approaches used by the management to introduce FHP in poverty communities.