The Development of Working Processes to Enhance Youth Engagement with Local Community

Abstract

The objectives of this research article were 1) to study the opinions of local youths in participation and community engagement; 2) to study the work with local youths from fieldwork of graduate volunteers; 3) to develop work processes that created youth engagement with local communities. It was a qualitative research in the form of participatory action research. The opinions of local youths were collected using a questionnaire that was validated by 3 experts with 314 sets of IOC values at the level of .75. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics to find mean, percentage and standard deviation. Project operation data was collected by tracking, observation and participation then the results obtained were used to synthesize to create conclusions. The results showed that 1) local youths wanted to participate in community development at a high level ( =3.51), had community commitment at a high level ( =3.68), but there was the opportunity to participate in expressing their opinions and do few activities with the community ( = 2.82); 2) a study of working with local youths consisted of (1) youth and community preparation; (2) youth development and community development planning; (3) carrying out the plan; (4) evaluation and taking lessons learned from work; and (5) reporting results and proposing work process improvements. Components supporting success were as follows: the integrated plan must come from the proposals of the youth and the community, especially the parents involved from the start of the process that was consistent with the roles and responsibilities of the supporting organization. There was academic support from a higher education institution; 3) development of work processes that built youth engagement with local communities. The synthesis was a step for application according to the community context in 5 steps: (1) preparing workers, (2) building good relationships with youth and community members, and (3) supporting participation in design and project development based on community needs; (4) collaborative operations; and (5) exchange and presentation of information for development.