Community Empowerment in Improving Access to Social Assistance through Education and Mentorship: A Study at the Pekanbaru City Social Affairs Office

Abstract

This article describes how education and mentoring carried out in the routine services of the Pekanbaru City Social Service Office can be understood as community empowerment that helps residents access social assistance (bansos). The study used a descriptive qualitative approach with participant observation, interviews, and documentation during the teaching practicum (PLP) of a Universitas Riau student at the office. The findings show that empowerment takes place through four activities: checking social assistance status, checking household decile position, creating accounts on the Cek Bansos application, and updating data. Officers explain the results step by step and clarify that a decile is a relative ranking of household welfare rather than a measure of income, so residents do not only receive results but also understand them and are able to follow up on their own data. PLP students support this process by assisting residents in filling in data, creating accounts, and understanding the checking procedure. The challenges include limited digital literacy, residents' limited understanding of the decile concept, and expectations that checking will directly lead to assistance. Routine, assisted services that combine information with mentoring help residents gain clear information about their social assistance status and support the accuracy of data used to target assistance.