Developing Model a Participatory Approach through Community

Empowerment: Case Study in Subsidized Housing Bulan Terang

Utama, Malang City

Ermita Yusida

, Mit Witjaksono

, Annisya

and Syahrul Munir

Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang -Indonesia

Keywords: COMMUNITY Empowerment, Participatory Action Research, Farmer Group, Subsidized Housing Bulan

Terang Utama Malang City

Abstract: The long-term goal of this paper is to help the government in the process of people-centered development.

Where is the globalization era which is all free, has brought changes in all aspects, include economic

development. So that, the view of development is not only increasing economic growth and national

income, but also increasing Human Development Index. Then, this is called participatory empowerment.

This concept, implemented of Farmer Group “Agri Mandiri” in subsidized housing Bulan Terang Utama,

Malang City. This paper using qualitative method with Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach. The

result of this study is PAR approach can increase community participation. In this paper, researcher act as

facilitators in development of Farmer Group “Agri Mandiri”. The fact, facilitators is very important to foster

enthusiasm and provide guidelines on how farm garden governance becomes a professional organization.

Developing model a PAR approach can help the community or organization to fulfil basic needs, also be

one of the tools to increasing of income in a long-term. In the ends, the role of facilitators is very important

for the success of community empowerment. For the future research should take longer time line to

observation.

1 INTRODUCTION

Community empowerment can use one of alternative

strategic of national development in the long-term.

People centered development approach, could be

new energy of economic development that based on

participatory concept. People centered development,

sees humans as a citizens and main subject of

development or community empowerment.

The main approach in empowerment concept is

community not the object of various development

projects, but is the subject of its own development

efforts. Based on the concept, so community

empowerment has to follow three guidelines

(Sumodiningrat, 1999). Firstly, the effort must be

directed. This is popularly called partiality. This

effort is aimed directly at those who need it, with

programs designed to address the problem and

according to their needs. Secondly, this program

must be immediately included or even implemented

by the target community. Including the community

who will be helped has several objectives, namely so

that the assistance is effective because it is in

accordance with the will and recognizes their

abilities and needs. In addition, it simultaneously

enhances the ability of the community with

experience in designing, implementing, managing,

and taking responsibility for efforts to improve

themselves and their economy. Thirdly, using a

group approach, because individually the poor are

difficult to solve the problems they face, also the

scope of assistance becomes too broad if the

handling is done individually. This group approach

is the most effective and seen from the use of

resources is also more efficient.

Participation is an important component in

generating independence and empowerment

processes (Mayo & Craig, 1995). This process, in

the end, will be able to create people-centered

development (Hikmat, 2004). The success of

empowerment depends on the active role of the

community, so the concept of participatory based

Yusida, E., Witjaksono, M., Annisya, . and Munir, S.

Developing Model a Participatory Approach through Community Empowerment: Case Study in Subsidized Housing Bulan Terang Utama, Malang City.

DOI: 10.5220/0009502804810484

In Proceedings of the 1st Unimed International Conference on Economics Education and Social Science (UNICEES 2018), pages 481-484

ISBN: 978-989-758-432-9

481

empowerment arises. Participatory based

empowerment invites all communities to participate

together in devoting thoughts, ideas, energy and

even funds to achieve the agreed program. These

empowerment programs are mainly related to the

optimal use of resources to meet community needs.

For this reason, we need collective action / collective

action in synergy, where collective action is an

action carried out by a group of individuals both

directly and through an organization, to achieve

mutual interests (Marshall, Duffy, Thompson,

Castell, & Hall, 2008).

In this study, the empowerment concept based on

participatory will be applied to the farmer groups in

subsidized housing Bulan Terang Utama of Malang

City. Subsidized housing is one of the government's

programs to provide housing for low income groups.

Therefore, the development of a participatory model

on community empowerment in subsidized housing

Bulan Terang Utama of Malang City is important to

identify. This is very beneficial for the community to

get facilitators in the development of farmer groups

as an effort to fulfill the basic needs and increase of

community income in the long run.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Empowerment is a process and results that can be

improved and evaluated (Hur, 2006). It is hoped that

a participatory approach will enable social processes

that produce positive change in individuals,

organizations, communities and communities. A

successful empowerment process will result in a

greater sense of control, social participation, and

choice in the lives of individuals. In society, it can

result in increased resources, enhanced connections,

and solidarity with other groups, which results in

improved quality of life (Nelson, 2005).

Participation according to Hoofsteede (1971)

quoted by (Khairudin, 1992) means "The taking part

in one or more phases of the process" or taking part

in a stage or more of a process, in this case the

development process. Whereas according to

Fithriadi et al. (1997) Participation is the main point

in a community-centered and sustainable

development approach and is an ongoing interactive

process.

The principle in participation is to involve or

direct community participation, and only be possible

if the community itself takes part, from the

beginning, the process and formulation of results.

Community involvement will be the guarantor of a

good and correct process. Thus, (Abe, 2005)

assumes that this causes the community to be well

trained. Without pre-conditions, in the sense of

developing political education, direct community

involvement will not give many meanings.

Furthermore (Abe, 2005) argues, involving the

community directly will have an important impact,

namely: (1) Avoid the opportunity for manipulation.

Community involvement will clarify what people

really want; (2) Giving added value to the legitimacy

of the planning formula because the more the

number of those involved will be better; and (3)

Increase public awareness and political skills.

RESEARCH METHOD

The methodology used in this research is using

explorative qualitative research. The data used is

primary data which is carried out by interviews and

direct observations in the research area. The subject

of this study is the Taman Bertani "Agri Mandiri"

which is located in the Perumahan Bulan Terang

Utama RT. 04 / RW.16. The developing model in

this research using Participatory Action Reasearch.

4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Most of people in subsidized housing Bulan Terang

Utama (BTU) are on the middle to lower scale.

Where subsidized housing is one of the government

programs in providing adequate housing facilities

for the poor. Human resource empowerment

programs have been carried out by the government.

This is in line with Indonesia's development goals,

namely to build Indonesian people as a whole, then

development must be a social change that does not

only occur in mere living standards but also in the

role of the elements in it. Development places

humans as the subject of development. Community

empowerment in poverty reduction is a commitment

between the state government and the regional

government.

So that, the prices of housing and credits are

subsidized by the government. However, in the

structure of BTU subsidized housing development

there are also non-subsidized housing. The

percentage of non-subsidized housing is only around

10 percent till 15 percent. The location of non-

subsidized housing is between subsidized housing.

So that one RT consists of 3 housing blocks, of

which 2 blocks are subsidized housing and 1 non-

subsidized housing block. So that people can unite

and have harmonious interactions.

This interaction can work well, as evidenced by

the existence of a farmer group "Agri Mandiri" in

UNICEES 2018 - Unimed International Conference on Economics Education and Social Science

482

Bulan Terang Utama Housing RT 04 / RW 16, Jl. Ki

Ageng Gribg Madyopuro, Malang City. This group

was formed from the initiative of residents to utilize

vacant land in addition to housing which is also a

green land that has been programmed by developers.

This farmer group was formed since 2017, but the

conditions are still ups and downs. Therefore, the

researcher wants to develop a participatory approach

to empowering the farmers group so that the initial

idea of the farmer group dies and finally only as a

discourse.

The farmer group "Agri Mandiri", run by the

head of the household and assisted by mothers in

RT.04 / RW.16. The purpose and objective of

forming this farming group is to promote community

mutual assistance activities by utilizing non-

productive land alongside housing. Providing

residents with psychological benefits for aesthetics

and health from agricultural products that are

managed naturally without synthetic chemicals. And

as a medium for reforestation and creation of

neighborhood residents. Besides this farming park is

intended to educate children and the younger

generation to preserve the environment and

understand the types, shapes and benefits of plants in

practice.

Given that this housing is still new, so most of

people who lives in this housing is working age, its

means they are so productive . However, there are

also those who are unworking age or non-

productive. The variety and status of residents of

RT.04 / RW16 actually makes the farming groups

even better. With a variety of backgrounds that are

owned, it is possible to exchange information. For

example, there are those who work in the financial

sector and are still young so they can share about

funding issues. There are also those who have a

great interest or interest in farming, so they can

share about the farming group activities program and

make a pilot project, which is more important than

that is that sustainable participation is very much

needed for the success of the managed farming park.

At the first this farming group still ran a

farming park as part of their hobbies and activities,

but often they gathered finally came up with an idea

to develop a farming park so that it could be used by

local residents and later it could be sold as an

increase in agricultural yields so that the community

economy could increase around. However, this idea

is often constrained by the problem of farm

management that none of the residents have an

agricultural background. So that in running activities

in the farm garden only learn from books or from

videos spread on the internet. Some have succeeded,

but many have failed.

The cohesiveness of the community in this

RT can also be seen from the participation of

mothers in selling and providing consumption when

there are farming park activities. So that the

management of the farming park is carried out by

the ladies and gentlemen, the part of providing

consumption and selling the results of farm garden

products. Agricultural products have their own

characteristics, namely promoting organic products.

The results of the participatory approach

included 3 main points, namely:

1. The farmer group will repair the greenhouse

At the beginning of this farmer group was

formed, they have made a greenhouse, but

walking for 2 months the greenhouse was

damaged by the wind. Even though the

existence of a green house is very important,

because not all plants can be placed on exposed

land. Moreover, the construction of empty land

is not all fertile. Therefore farmer groups

agreed to rebuild greenhouses that were more

robust with joint funding.

2. The farmer group will replace plants that are

easy to manage and produce

Before the existence of the researcher, the

plants planted by farmer groups were diverse

and unfocused. Then it was agreed that the

plants to be planted included two groups of

plants, namely (a) plants for household needs

and (b) main crops in the form of passion fruit

which would later be used as processed

products.

3. Farming governance will be assisted for access

to experts

The farmer group asks the facilitator to bring in

special experts in agriculture so that the plants

to be planted can grow well. This is because

according to the experience of the previous

farmer groups many plants failed to harvest.

The yield of the plant is not satisfactory. The

farmer group can only make compost, but for

governance there is no expert.

4. Make written work program

So far, farmer groups have never made a

written agenda, so many ideas that have been

accommodated cannot be implemented. So that

researchers become facilitators in preparing the

activity agenda in writing. This is used so that

each citizen has duties and responsibilities, so

that all activities can be carried out properly.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The conclusion of this paper are, namely:

1. The existence of facilitators makes farmer

groups become increasingly active and

Developing Model a Participatory Approach through Community Empowerment: Case Study in Subsidized Housing Bulan Terang Utama,

Malang City

483

enthusiastic. This is because they feel they have

the support of outside parties who also develop

the farming parks they manage.

2. Empowerment programs through a participatory

approach are more efficient in increasing

community activeness.

3. The existence of an empowerment program

through a participatory approach is more

efficient in the preparation of community

activities programs.

The suggestion of this paper are, namely:

1. Mentoring should be carried out continuously so

that the results obtained are getting more and

more.

2. The implementation of the activity program

must be longer because every weather has a

different problem.

3. More assistance from experts in agriculture is

needed so that plant varieties and processed

products can be maximized and have high

selling power

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