Our JUMP! Impact Program in the Pulesari tourism village in Yogyakarta, Indonesia was a huge success! Our partner for this JUMP! Leadership Program was Desa Lestari, a non-profit organization that works with Indonesian villages on community development.
In addition to Nick Hathaway and Graciela Rodriguez, one of our JUMP! Facilitators, Marcella, joined us for the program. Marcella is a native of Indonesia. She shared a reflection on her experience with us (quoted below) and was a key contributor to this post:
“I have an interest in social issues and community development. I also worked and volunteered in some of the organizations during my time at university. Being a volunteer for a JUMP! Leadership Program has brought back memories of those days. I really enjoyed the moment when I shared with the community the activities, games, energizers. It was good to see people trying to find a root cause of the problem before they try to solve it. For me personally, I always feel touched and happy at the same time every time I see the participants look confused with questions on their face or even when they made a mistake. It meant that they were eager to understand and keep trying. This feeling to never give up is such a good investment for personal and community growth. The questions that the participants asked were also interesting. It showed me their curiosity towards this training and conference. Being a volunteer for a JUMP! Leadership Program made me more sensitive to social issues in my country. I gained new perspectives about community development, not only for youth development in the community and villages but also about farmers’ issues, agricultural issues, even social entrepreneur development in the community. My highlight during the program was when the participants started to make their prototypes, they were really awesome. They had a short time to prepare things and they still made awesome prototypes, I was amazed!”
Before the conference began, Marcella, Nick, and Graci hosted a facilitator training for local facilitators. They trained them on how tools to assess the needs of the community and tried to dig deeper into the root of the problems the community faced. M.I.S.O. and design-thinking were two of the tools shared with the facilitators. In addition to the more concrete project-based tools, they shared skills for community-building activities. When the conference began, these local facilitators were well prepared to lead the participants with confidence!
Over three conference days, the participants learned about community-building through engaging activities and games. People mingled and solved challenges together as teams. The participants led different sessions during the open space block, which was intended to give participants space to share their experiences, feelings, and expertise.
After the participants bonded, they started to think about creating social impact projects through design-thinking. Participants discussed the importance of empathy, defined the problem they wanted to solve, and ideated how to solve it. They created prototypes and tested them.
By the end of the conference, all groups shared their projects and action plans and we identified two winning projects:
Group 3 – Kusuma Sakti – Supporting Coconut Brown Sugar Price
The group wants to solve the issue of low coconut brown sugar prices in Hargomulyo. The coconut brown sugar price has lowered because collectors started buying it at a low price. The selling system in this village is that the brown sugar maker borrows money from the collector and pay it back through giving the collector the brown sugar. The group wants to tell people from outside the village about the coconut brown sugar they have. They also want to make an innovation for brown sugar. Usually, brown sugar is really hard to cut. They want to make ‘Gula Potek’ so the customer can only break the brown sugar without much effort, just like breaking chocolate. This group wants a house or space to be the brown sugar center. They will use it for education about coconut brown sugar or as the center of production. The first step in their project is to buy brown sugar from the brown sugar maker at a higher price than the collector. By selling the brown sugar to the youth community, the brown sugar maker can increase their income. The ultimate goal of the project is to increase the brown sugar maker’s welfare in the future.
Group 4 – Pagerharjo – Youth Community Center
This group addressed the lack of creativity and skills for generating it among youth in Pagerharjo Village. They plan on renovating an empty house in the village to use as a community youth center. People can drop off items (furniture, mushrooms, harvest, etc.) and sell them there. The intention behind this project is to give space for youth to develop their skills for innovation. In order to sell the products, the youth will have opportunities to enhance their marketing skills. Since this village is a popular tourist destination, having a youth center to sell many products could be beneficial because it would bring external funds into the community. To start this project, this group has found an empty house to use. Having a youth center in the village will hopefully inspire youth in that area to become more creative and active.
We are all very excited to support the youth participants with their projects came and will look forward to seeing how they progress in the near future.
What social issue would you like to contribute to in finding a solution? We encourage you to take a critical lens as you reflect on the needs of your own community. We are all capable of having a positive impact! We just need to make it happen.
