Collaborative Community Empowerment Model to Improve the
Living Quality of Poor People
Case Study on “Down-Syndrome Village” in Ponorogo Regency
Falih Suaedi and Genut Wahyu Widiono
Faculty of Social and Polical Science, Airlangga University, 10 Sawentar Road, Surabaya, Indonesia
Keywords: Collaborative, Empowerment, Poor People, Poverty Alleviation.
Abstract: Collaborative Community Empowerment is an empowerment strategy by collaborating various actors and
stakeholders in empowerment programs. Implementation of the empowerment program is still sectorally and
separately, especially in rural areas with centre of poverty. The case in this research is improving the quality
of life of people with mental retardation. Thus, a comprehensive approach is needed to collaborate on these
sectors. The purpose of this study is to develop a community empowerment model based on Collaborative
Community Empowerment. In order to find the right model for collaboration in rural and poor people specially
to improve the quality of life of people with mental retardation, this study deepens and understands the
empirical pattern of empowerment that has implemented, and analyzed using the Collaborative Community
Empowerment theory to create an appropriate collaborative model. The result of this study is the creation of
a collaborative model for the society to improve the quality of life the community that gives beneficial impact
on increasing quality of life of people with mental retardation and the society.
1 INTRODUCTION
Poverty alleviation has become the main agenda in
Indonesia development activities. The existing
development strategies which focused on economic
growth had not yet significantly contribute to
decreasing the number of poverty in Indonesia.
Various studies revealed that economic growth in
Indonesia is still lacking quality because the
community welfare improvement is not included in
the economic growth process (Prasetyo and
Maisaroh, 2009). Even though Indonesian economic
development rate is actually increasing from 4.88%
in 2015 to 5.02% in 2016, the number of people who
live in poverty remain the same, amounted to 62.24%
in the rural areas. The lack of community
participation in the development process was
assumed as the main reason for the ineffectiveness of
development programs in Indonesia. The situation
worsened because most of the poverty alleviation
programs in Indonesia is hierarchy-oriented and
governmental-centric (Hadna, 2016).
In the discourse of development, community
empowerment is regarded as an antithesis of a top-
down approach in development strategy, which still
relevant to overcome problems of poverty (Hatu,
2010; Widayanti, 2012). Empowerment requires
active participation from the society level (Kufuor
and Koomson, 2014). Effective society participation
could lead to personal and social empowerment,
economic growth, and social transformation.
However, the initiation of empowerment and
participation from the vulnerable group in the society
is low. The implementation of the program is focused
on mobilization, while in theory, participation is the
key to empowerment. Civil participation in
empowerment program is not only as the program
consumer but also as the producer who actively
contribute and responsible for the process and
outcomes of the program. Civil participation is also
expected to motivate society to reach the next level of
the program (Soetomo, 2006). In the development
context, empowerment is not merely a structural
activity, it is a psychological process. Therefore, an
authority to society to determine the development
orientation could be designed. It could further
integrate individual value and communal belief
toward independent and potential community
(Gkorezis and Petridou, 2011).
Low initiative and participation in poor society
cannot motivate the community to be independent. It
also hinders empowerment activities, especially when
assistance from another party is not present. Thus, the
362
Suaedi, F. and Widiono, G.
Collaborative Community Empowerment Model to Improve the Living Quality of Poor People - Case Study on “Down-Syndrome Village” in Ponorogo Regency.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 362-366
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

presence of enabler, whether in the form of group or
institution, is required (Wijaya, 2010). Many parties
are actually capable to be an enabler, such as
government, private sectors, higher education
institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGO) and others. Unfortunately, they worked
individually with their interest and perspective to
solve community problems where each party did not
work in integrated activities.
Relations between empowerment actors were
limited in agent-client relation, which the agenda
orientation is focused on program implementation
without substantial impact (Tobirin, 2013).
Consequently, empowerment program transforms to
be a charity program which only has a temporary
impact. Ineffective empowerment programs can
change the social behavior of the society and reduce
social capital which is an important thing to empower
society to be independent (Sopandi, 2010). In many
cases, empowerment program for poor people has
many obstacles such as community capacity,
institutional capacity, organizational culture and
regulatory framework (Adamson, 2010). Therefore,
empowerment program needs a collaborative
approach to facilitate multiple actors' coordination
and community participation.
Collaborative approach also used in social service
practice. Research form Arthur Turovh Himmelman
in 1992 argued that collaborative approach can
change the paradigm in social service by transforming
power relation and focus on integrating social service
to improve its cost-effectiveness (Himmelman,
1996). Collaboration is about collecting required
knowledge, skill, value and motivation through
participation based on effective action (Whittington,
2003). A collaborative approach is different with a
partnership. Partnership emphasizes the legal-formal
activity of a program while collaboration provides
more flexible space to collaborate with many actors.
A collaborative approach is a mutual action of
exchanging information, activities alteration,
resources sharing and enhancing the capacity of other
for mutual benefit and a common purpose
(Himmelman, 2001). Collaborative Community
empowerment was introduced by Seunghyun Yoo,
and Nathan E Weed trough their research in the public
health field. They created a strategic model to support
health promotion for the community that involved
multiple mediators such as university and public
group with a collaborative approach. This model
combines social ecology with participation from the
society to analyze the interaction between human and
environment, human, and group in the environment,
and the interaction between cause and effect in the
community environment (Yoo and Nathan, 2004).
Collaborative community empowerment based on
the previous study is merely a technical illustration
form one perspective. In this model, the involvement
of government, the private sector, and the institutional
actor is not fully addressed. In the context of
community empowerment which oriented to
community capacity development, there is an urgency
to highlight studies about the inter-agency relation.
This paper tries to develop collaborative community
empowerment model focusing on participation,
capacity building, multi-actor relation, and
sustainability.
This paper shows a developing collaborative
community empowerment that is more flexible and
appropriate to use with empowerment program for
poor people or vulnerable society. In this model, each
actor has important role and participation is a key
factor that determines the effectiveness of this model.
2 METHODS
This research applies qualitative method with a
phenomenological approach. The research conducted
by investigating a social phenomenon by
differentiating, duplicating, cataloging and clarifying
the object of research (Creswell, 2009).
Phenomenological research captures closely the
phenomenon to find a meaning contained in the
phenomenon through investigation or analysis of the
problem (Smith, 2009).
The focus of the investigation is community
empowerment in Sidoharjo Village, Ponorogo
Regency, about obstacles and inter-actor
collaboration pattern in empowering the society. Data
gathered through observation, in-depth interview, and
desk study from various scientific and empiric
documents. The key informants for this research are
Head of Community Empowerment Department and
Local Government, Head of Health Department,
Head of the Development Planning Agency at Sub-
National Level, Head of Sidoharjo Village, Public
figures in Sidoharjo, Non-Governmental
Organization and other related stakeholders.
Data were analyzed by data reduction from the
research field for categorization by researcher's
interpretation. Data was further analyzed and
elaborated into a theoretical discussion. The result of
theoretical analysis and the research outcomes from
the field were elaborated by researcher's perspective
for mapping the collaboration pattern and the
obstacles experienced by the residents. Then, the
collaborative empowerment model is developed
based on research findings in the field which has
elaborated with the theory. The final step is to
determine the conclusion and formulating policy
implication.
Collaborative Community Empowerment Model to Improve the Living Quality of Poor People - Case Study on “Down-Syndrome Village”
in Ponorogo Regency
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3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This section will discuss findings in the field and
theoretical discussion to develop collaborative
empowerment model. The focus of the discussion in
this research is inter-actor relations, the classification
of obstacles and collaboration pattern, and the
development of collaborative empowerment model.
3.1 Empowerment and Collaboration
Pattern
Sidoharjo is a village located in Ponorogo regency,
east java. It recorded the highest number of resident
who suffers physical and mental illness in Ponorogo,
which make the village known as "down syndrome
village". The village is densely populated with people
living in poverty. Sidoharjo is officially registered as
a village in 2007, located on a mountain slope with
extremely slow infrastructure development. It has
6.376 residents with 1.668 head of the family. The
education level of Sidoharjo residents is very low.
51.4% of them had never experienced formal
education and 33.25% are elementary school
graduates. Therefore, the poverty level in Sidoharjo is
substantial. 996 households received rice assistance
for the vulnerable group and temporary direct
assistance and recorded the highest number of rice for
vulnerable group assistance receiver in Ponorogo.
Not only heavily affected by poverty, Sidoharjo
also recorded the highest number of resident who
suffers from physical and mental disability in
Ponorogo. The number of mental disability sufferer is
210 people or 3.29% from total population.
The existing development program is still
physical oriented. Sidoharjo Village recorded the
highest number of the resident with the mental
disability, which attracts sympathy from many
people. Direct assistance was annually delivered to
the village. However, according to the informant, the
assistance only lasted temporarily which makes them
dependent on the assistance. Even though many
programs had implemented before, the programs did
not give a significant contribution to the improvement
of live quality, especially for people with mental
disability.
The main executor of empowerment
collaboration is the government. A government with
its inherent task as a formal institution have the power
to organize society for empowerment in long term.
The society also has the bigger access to government
compared to other actors. The government actually
had initiated to open the participation access to other
actors, but the integration never realized. The basic
challenge from empowerment program is
sustainability. Most programs had failed to maintain
its continuity even they have a well-planned agenda.
Dependency to government fund and formal rules
creates an impression that government empowerment
program implementation is merely a formality (see
table 1).
Table 1: Collaborative empowerment pattern in Sidoharjo
Village.
Sidoharjo people performed collaborative effort
through groups in the community to help disable
group in the area. In Sidowayah sub-area, the
community established "sidowayah bangkit" (Rising
Sidowayah) forum to mediate empowerment actors
with people with disability. Parties who participated
in the forum have active duties to serve and supervise
disable people in the empowerment program by
coordinating the distribution of direct assistance, due
to the inability of disabled people to receive the aid.
Even though Sidowayah Bangkit performed an
important role as mediator, but this forum does not
have the power to initiate and organize the program.
In addition, work coverage of this forum is limited
inside the sub-area. They are not able to build
relations with related stakeholders or to advocate the
people.
Specifically, the collaboration between
government and society is still on the passive level
where the community merely plays a role as program
recipient. Communication and coordination from the
government are not reaching the substance of
empowerment. For instances, feed seed planting
program and goat breeding are considered subjective
which often neglect society needs because the seed is
not suitable for Sidoharjo people needs. Furthermore,
the economic value of the program comes in long
term. Thus, without proper guidance, the program is
very prone to failure. The Same condition applies to
assistance in the form of capital for small enterprises.
Business in the rural area generally does not have a
significant impact like the business does in the urban
community. The situation gets more severe because
of the low level of education which suppressed the
effectiveness of empowerment program.
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3.2 Development of Collaborative
Community Empowerment Model
Collaborative empowerment approach used social
ecology analysis which divided into 4 levels: policy,
organizational, community, and family/individual.
Data gathered in the field shows that the community
empowerment pattern is proceeded in individual level
and shows no integration indicator. Each actor gives
the contribution to the empowerment process but
without clear direction. People capacity is low and
unable to deliver a clear description of what they had
in mind. In another word, the actors' movement is
only based on their own interest.
The key factor in empowerment is participation
from the community, organization, and community in
order to achieve the development agenda.
Collaboration between those three social ecologies is
the success key of development. Empowerment for
poor people has special characterization, particularly
from the capacity aspect. Community capacity is one
obstacle in empowerment (Adamson, 2010).
Therefore, capacity development is an important
factor to support the empowerment of poor people.
The development of collaborative community
empowerment model based on social ecology
perspective, with the basis of internal actor-relation,
is improving. The collaboration model to empower
poor people was developed through three important
factors: 1) capacity development; 2) inter-actor
relations, and 3) sustainability (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Development collaborative community
empowerment model.
Collaborative community empowerment model is
divided into two sub-activities, namely collaborative
betterment and collaborative empowerment.
Collaborative betterment focused on capacity
planning and actor internalization. Collaborative
empowerment is the core of empowerment activities
to ensure its sustainability.
3.2.1 Capacity Development
Capacity development in societal level is an initial
action for poor people empowerment process. This
process attempted to prepare the targeted group to
receive the empowerment program. The government
has the power to interfere in capacity development
through the power of regulation approach and
intensive socialization. In the capacity development
process, government and society should identify the
related actors of empowerment program and provide
space for their activities.
3.2.2 Inter-actor Relations
Actor internalization process in empowerment
program is conducted by identifying the role and the
involvement of the actors. Thereafter, all actors
formulate strategic issues to be accomplished by
empowerment program. The actor will share the roles
and decide priority program. Strategic programs
offered by each actor will be adjusted according to
community capacity to formulate development
strategies. The activities in inter-actor relations are
communication before empowerment and program
integration to support program realization. Program
integration could improve the effectiveness of
expenses management, effort, and other resources in
a directed agenda for a long term. In addition, actors
play a crucial role to open the networking access as
an attempt to gain support for development program
sustainability.
3.2.3 Sustainability
Sustainability is one major problem that always
occurred in empowerment program. The unity of
empowerment direction provides a clear description
of the empowerment activities. This systematic effort
is the one used as social capital for program
sustainability. Program integration to solve a problem
will be measured and evaluated by a systemic
measurement tool to create a clear outcome. The
evaluation result will be used as an asset in societal
transition. The shift in the society will be accurately
measured as guidance for the further step that should
be taken. In the context of sustainability, the meaning
of the concept is to maintain the program until the
goals are accomplished.
Social setting in the collaborative empowerment
model involves poor people with low capacity in
knowledge, skill, infrastructure, social capital, and
networking. Actor's involvement in empowerment is
a supporting factor to achieve independence in
society. Each actor has advantages and drawbacks.
By collaboration, the drawbacks could be outweighed
by another actor's advantages. In this context,
empowerment model applies for one long-term
strategy. Given the background of poor society,
empowerment program is expected not only to
improve the short-term life quality for society but also
to create a better dependent community.
Collaborative Community Empowerment Model to Improve the Living Quality of Poor People - Case Study on “Down-Syndrome Village”
in Ponorogo Regency
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4 CONCLUSIONS
Empowerment in Sidoharjo Village is not
significantly improved the living standard of people
in the area. Empowerment actors are dominated by
government, while non-government actors provide
direct assistance without empowerment. The existing
empowerment program from the government is not
yet effective in providing short-term aid, yet creating
dependency for Sidoharjo people. Given the fact, it is
apparent that empowerment is still performed one-
sided without inter-actor collaboration.
The development of collaboration model to
empower poor people is developed through three
main factors, 1) capacity development; 2) inter-actor
relations, and 3). sustainability. Collaborative
betterment process focused on community capacity
planning and actor-internalization. Collaborative
empowerment contains inter-actor relations
mechanism in various empowerment processes
management, ranging from issues identification to
sustainability. The collaboration model could
enhance the effectiveness of each sector's role in one
empowerment agenda. The unity of process and role
collaboration could create a social capital for society
in order to prepare the following empowerment
agenda or sustainability program.
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