Contribution of Community Organizations to Develop Assets and

Development of Poor Communities in Medan City

Husni Thamrin and Nurman Achmad

Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Urban Poor, Assets Development, Community Development.

Abstract: Empowerment activities carried out by organizations or institutions in developing assets or capital in the

community have long been carried out. Assets in the community are developed and empowered to improve

their livelihoods. The contribution of local organizations is assistance provided by local organizations to

their members through programs implemented such as training to improve skills and find a new skills,

providing information, knowledge and insights as well as providing educational motivation to members of

the urban poor. These contributions can be mapped according to the vision and mission of local

organizations in empowering the assets of urban poor communities in the city of Medan.

INTRODUCTION

Efforts to empower local organizations as

community empowerment are in line with "People

Centered Development" and "Reinventing

Government" are not easy, because many factors

need to be considered both internal factors which

include conditions and characteristics of local

community organizations and external factors which

include activities, technical strategies and methods,

the role and professional skills of community

development workers as a companion to the program

and the role of other development actors (NGOs,

Donor Institutions, Universities and Government)

(Widanarto, 2014).

Asset-based community empowerment has been

carried out by institutions or organizations engaged

in community development in developing countries

such as the United Kingdom Department for

International Development (DFID) and Oxfam.

These institutions or organizations develop assets or

capital in the community in the process of

empowerment or community development to

improve community livelihoods. Assets in the

community are developed and empowered to

improve their livelihoods. In Indonesia, there are

many institutions or organizations engaged in the

field of community empowerment but it is not seen

that actually develops all assets in the community

such as human, physical, fiscal, social and natural

assets in the process of community empowerment.

One of the most popular empowerment programs in

Indonesia today is the Program Nasional

Pemberdayaan Masyarakat (PNPM) Mandiri that has

not fully developed the existing assets in the

community. If you pay attention to this program is

still about human development (human assets),

physical (physical assets), economic (financial

assets). Here there is an assumption that by

empowering or developing the people's economy all

aspects related to community welfare will be

fulfilled (Syamsudin, 2016).

In reality, there are not only one or two aspects

that must be considered, but also other assets or

capital. This is related to the sustainability of the

community empowerment program that has been

carried out. Developing the community's economy

(fiscal assets) must be accompanied by the

development of its human resources (human assets)

as well as physical and natural assets as a means of

developing the existing economy and human

resources. Whereas social assets and technological

capital are used as supporting or complementary

facilities for the development of other assets

(human, fiscal, natural, or physical assets) to meet

the needs of the community. So, in this case it

appears that assets in the community need to be

considered in the process of community

empowerment.

414

Thamrin, H. and Achmad, N.

Contribution of Community Organizations to Develop Assets and Development of Poor Communities in Medan City.

DOI: 10.5220/0010037604140417

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 3 2019) - Social Engineering Governance for the People, Technology and Infrastructure in

Revolution Industry 4.0, pages 414-417

ISBN: 978-989-758-472-5

METHOD

The research approach used is a qualitative, carried

out in Medan. The organizations that were the locus

of this study were at Serikat Becak Merdeka (SBM),

STM Silahturahim, Credit Union (CU) Ayah Bunda,

LENTERA Medan, Bina Nelayan, Masyarakat

Kebun Kolektif, Kelompok Nelayan Ujung Tanjung

(SMI), Serikat Nelayan, Rumah Industri Marjinal

(RIM). Data analysis in a qualitative approach

focuses on inductive analysis, so that descriptive

analysis data can be illustrated (Bungin, 2014).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The contribution of local community organizations

in the process of empowering community assets has

a very large role, because many urban poor people

are helped by skills training, developing knowledge

of knowledge carried out by local organizations to

their members.

The development of an empowerment model that

emphasizes aspects of intellectuality rather than

action activities has also been examined by Thamrin

(2006). Community empowerment is an effort to

develop understanding of the development of new

thinking, analytical, and education rather than an

action effort. This model will be closely related to

changes in insight and transformation of knowledge.

Education becomes the main tool in this

empowerment process (Thamrin, 2006). It can be

said that the contribution of local community

organizations has an influence on the economic,

social life of members of the urban poor who are

members of local community organizations.

Based on the results of research conducted on

the contribution of local community organizations in

empowering the assets of urban poor communities in

the city of Medan, information is obtained that the

contribution of local community organizations in

empowering the assets of community members is as

follows:

Assist the economy of its members through skills

training and information knowledge as well as

the development of members' insights,

Conducting an empowerment process especially

for fishermen's wives through skills training

programs,

Conducting empowerment processes through

training programs and skills in developing the

ability of members in accordance with the world

of work,

Help open access to members of the organization

in achieving job information, and access in other

fields to get a better economic life,

Become a means of connecting the aspirations of

members of the organization to the Central

Government, Medan City Government, the

Central House of Representatives and the Medan

City House of Representatives, Become a means

of advocating for members who have problems

with the law or experience acts of violence from

other parties,

Assist family economic empowerment through

business capital assistance and other skills

programs.

The contribution of local organizations is

assistance provided by local organizations to their

members through programs implemented such as

training in skills, providing information, knowledge

and insights as well as providing educational

motivation to members of the urban poor.

These contributions can be mapped according to

the vision and mission of local organizations in

empowering the assets of urban poor communities in

the city of Medan. Mapping the contribution of local

community organizations can be done by looking at

the potential of local community organizations in

empowering the assets of community members of

urban poor community organizations in the city of

Medan. The amount of contribution made through

programs and training by local organizations is very

frightening to help members of the organization in

meeting their daily needs and to ease the burden on

members of local community organizations (Muhtar,

2010).

Furthermore, the activities carried out by the

urban poor in addressing poverty are carried out by

finding out information from the managers of the

local organizations that are followed. The

information sought is information on venture capital

assistance, information on skills training schedules

or information on whether there is assistance

provided to the urban poor, whether scholarship

assistance for children's education, information

about schools or levels of education that will be

pursued for children and others. All knowlwdge,

skills and business capital owned by the urban poor

are obtained from the management of local

organizations through skills training that has been

provided to the urban poor communities.

In addition, the strategy undertaken by the urban

poor in dealing with poverty, in particular preparing

education funds for school children, is to reduce

unnecessary expenses and set aside daily expenses

for unnecessary expenses and the funds are used for

Contribution of Community Organizations to Develop Assets and Development of Poor Communities in Medan City

415

education costs. Setting aside daily spending money

is the strategy most often done to reduce spending

money is expected to raise funds for children's

education, besides getting used to living frugally by

reducing unnecessary expenses in the family. This

strategy is most often done by the urban poor in

anticipating the cost of education for children.

Then the strategy taken by the urban poor if there

are family members who are sick by visiting the

Community Health Center (Puskesmas), the

puskesmas is the choice of the urban poor, especially

if there are members who are sick. And if a family

member is seriously ill or cannot be treated at the

puskesmas then the family member is taken to the

nearest hospital. By using government assistance

through the BPJS, the urban poor can access health

facilities from the puskesmas for free. Even though

there are still urban poor people who do not yet have

BPJS Health, they still choose the puskesmas to get

health facilities because of the low cost compared to

going to the hospital.

Strategies undertaken by the urban poor to gain

access to health services are carried out by seeking

additional income by working to utilize skills

acquired from local community organizations, then

setting aside spending money and daily necessities

to be used as savings when there are family

members sick. And indebted to the family is another

strategy that is commonly done in accessing health

facilities.

The strategy undertaken by the urban poor is a

natural thing for them, for example, telling his wife

and children to work to help the family economy. If

only the husband or head of the family works, their

income will not be sufficient in one month for that

cooperation from all families is needed in order to

increase family income. Likewise with other things,

such as working more than eight hours a day to meet

the necessities of life carried out by members of the

organization or the urban poor, even though they are

more than eight hours a day still their income is not

sufficient to meet the necessities of life. By joining

urban poor communities in organizations that

provide skills training, information, insights, and

venture capital assistance, members can use them to

work more effectively. So as to create additional

income and get a more decent income to meet the

daily needs of the family.

Based on the results of the research and expert

opinion above regarding the strategy of the urban

poor in dealing with poverty, it can be concluded as

follows:

Work more than usual (work more than eight

hours) in one day,

Reducing the cost of the need to be used as a

savings fund if there are family members who

are sick or used for the new school year school

children (for the allocation of children's

education funds),

Looking for side jobs by utilizing the skills and

expertise of local organizations,

Asking other family members to help work (wife

works to help the family economy and children

work after school),

Selecting Puskesmas to get health care facilities

using BPJS and selecting hospitals if there are

family members who have chronic pain that

cannot be handled by the puskesmas,

For children's education, it is dealt with by

reducing the cost of daily necessities and saving

lives by not buying unnecessary things,

Utilizing local organizations to borrow venture

capital assistance,

Owe money to the family if you are in a

desperate need of money, because you owe

money to the family without interest and the

payback period can be longer (if you already

have money),

Live in the house of relatives /relatives if you

cannot afford to rent a house, and build a house

on government-owned land if you don't have a

family to board.

The urban poor also use community

organizations to become facilitators in order to

receive assistance. The assistance is a program from

the central government such as raskin, BLT. PKH is

received regularly by the respondent. Not all

respondents received the assistance aside from the

problem of incomplete administration of members

plus other problems such as the uneven collection of

the poor population. The magnitude of help received

by respondents in helping daily life is very minimal

ranging from 1-10% for this reason, in meeting the

needs of life members of local community

organizations must work hard outside of normal

work hours to above eight hours each day. The

money collected is also used as a reserve fund for

example for children's schools, medical expenses if

there are sick families and others.

The assistance is used as a way to help the daily

lives of the urban poor, although the assistance

received is not maximally able to help the

livelihoods of the urban poor. To meet the needs of

daily life, the urban poor must work harder up to

eight hours more per day, and set aside costs from

daily shopping. Based on the results of the study it is

also known that there are still urban poor people

who have not received all the assistance such as

ICOSOP 3 2019 - International Conference on Social Political Development (ICOSOP) 3

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PKH, raskin, BLT and other programs beyond the

factors of uneven data collection, limited funds, etc.

Strategies undertaken by local organization

managers in empowering the urban poor or members

who are members of these local community

organizations. The strategy is a variety of ways by

local community organizations, one of which is to

invite members to be active or participate in

activities and programs carried out by local

community organizations.

Based on the results of the study it is also known

that it is not easy to invite members to participate in

activities, the low awareness of members on the

importance of training and skills as well as programs

implemented by local community organizations

makes the community managers must carry out

specific strategies in empowering the urban poor,

this is compounded with the low motivation of

members in the empowerment process which is also

influenced by low economic factors, social factors,

and environmental factors around the residence of

members of local community organizations. This

was also found in the issue of empowerment in a

2013 study by Sulili. The problem that often arises

when giving opportunities to the community to

participate in the development process is that

capacity is considered by many to be still low so that

it does not have sufficient capacity to jointly with

the government, the private sector manages the

implementation of development, including public

services.

However, with the community empowerment

program being carried out by various groups today,

gradually these doubts have diminished and even

today many government programs have involved

participation. This development is certainly a good

sign for the community empowerment process. Hope

that participation becomes a culture that is

embedded in community life as a possible thing.

Community participation becomes an integral part of

community life and a culture in social life.

In true

Indonesian culture the principle of participation has long

been contained in culture and social life. The values of

mutual cooperation and participating in community

activities have long been implemented in every ethnic

community.

CONCLUSION

The contribution of local organizations is assistance

provided by local organizations to their members

through programs implemented such as training in

skills and skills, providing information, knowledge

and insights as well as providing educational

motivation to members of the urban poor. These

contributions can be mapped according to the vision

and mission of local organizations in empowering

the assets of urban poor communities in the city of

Medan.

Strategies undertaken by local organization

managers in empowering the urban poor or members

who are members of these local community

organizations. The strategy is a variety of ways

carried out by local community organizations one of

which is to invite members to be active or participate

in activities and programs carried out by local

community organizations.

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