Community Service Lecture - Community Empowerment by Students (KKN-PMM) of Warmadewa University (Unwar) in 2024 in Batuaji Village, Tabanan Regency took the theme "Optimizing Village Potential to Minimize Community Disparities Through Community Empowerment". The activity was carried out for a month involving 21 students from the departments of State Administration, Law, Medicine, Government Science and Civil Engineering.
The implementation of KKN is a learning process at Warmadewa University which is developed through community service activities in various aspects of community life. However, in the implementation of KKN, it is accompanied by community empowerment learning known as KKN-PMM (Community Empowerment Real Work Lecture by Students) which is a mandatory activity that combines the implementation of the Tri Dharma of Higher Education by providing learning and work experience to students in community empowerment activities.
KKN Supervisor, dr. Dewa Ayu Agung Alit Suka Astiti, MSi., said that KKN-PMM is one of the community service activities aimed at instilling character values, analyzing social problems and potential in society and instilling empathy and concern for all forms of problems in society. "For the academic community itself, the KKN-PMM activity aims to be a form of important contribution in developing empathy and concern for the academic community towards various real problems faced by society and sustainable development that is needed to educate the nation's life and realize community welfare," he said. In addition, KKN activities are expected to be able to produce students with strong, superior, noble personalities, and can become individuals who are ready when they enter society. "In this case, students play the role of problem solvers, motivators, facilitators, and dynamic in the process of solving problems and community development.
Through this concept, we hope that the presence of students as young intellectuals will be able to develop into agents or leaders of change who intelligently and appropriately solve problems faced by their communities," he said. Furthermore, it was said, with the theme "Optimizing Village Potential to Minimize Community Disparities Through Community Empowerment" efforts were made to empower the community through the realization of its potential abilities. One of the potentials of human development can be realized through community education activities.
This activity emphasizes the importance of understanding community needs and how to solve their problems by paying attention to the potential in their environment. Therefore, KKN-PMM students of Warmadewa University who are assigned to Batuaji Village, Kerambitan District, Tabanan Regency carry out KKN-PMM with several programs to improve Empowerment in action referring to the process of self-empowerment and professional support for people who help them overcome feelings of helplessness and lack of influence, and to recognize and use their resources to work to the best of their ability.
The work program is implemented in an effort to develop community independence and welfare by increasing knowledge, attitudes, skills, behavior, abilities, awareness and utilizing resources through the establishment of policies, programs, activities and assistance that are in accordance with the essence of the problem and the priority needs of the village community.
