The work with groups, in the Family Health Program, can be considered as a technology of assistance and empowerment of patients and community for the exercise of citizenship. Aim: to analyze in which way the work with groups can generate or strengthen spaces of community participation and social control. Methods: exploratory-descriptive research in 8 Family Health Units from Cuiaba/ Brazil. Results: nurses work with groups in current programs in the practice of traditional public health. The groups only work with collective information about diseases and treatment and consolidate such assistance strategy while the empowerment dimension for the exercise of citizenship is reduced.