The Role of Communities in Strengthening Environmental Care Characters: Case Study in the Indonesian Green Youth Coalition

Abstract

The technological advances make it easy for community activities and solve existing problems. However, the reality of advances in information technology has made citizens become individualists and have not been able to resolve existing environmental problems. People become accustomed to activities and things instantly and easily so they cannot be wise towards the environment. Thus a character strengthening is needed for the community to become ecological citizenship. Character strengthening is not enough given in the school or family environment, but also in the community through the community. This research aims to describe the effort of strengthening people's environmental awareness done by an environment-based community in Surabaya. The Indonesian Green Youth Coalition is an environment-based community that provides character strengthening to the community. The focus of this research is how characters are formed in The Indonesian Green Youth Coalition, the impact of the program on the community and the obstacles faced. Strengthening the character of environmental care is carried out through several programs established by The Indonesian Green Youth Coalition. These programs have a positive impact by showing a change in behavior in everyday situations where people begin to sort out garbage and are able to process it into new items. In its implementation, The Indonesian Green Youth Coalition has the main constraints which are related to time. Nevertheless, this can be resolved through communication between members.