Susi Susanti

This presentation explores how grassroots community learning initiatives help strengthen the government's family education programs in Indonesia. It uses theories about culturally relevant development, participatory governance, and collaborative leadership to analyze literature on Indonesia’s evolving efforts to nurture whole-child wellness through family-focused approaches. Specifically, it examines how the national family education program, developed since 2017, collaborates with communities to constantly improve its efforts in more suitable ways. Through community learning circles, families provide input that ensures initiatives respect diverse cultural assets and contexts across Indonesia’s archipelago. This exchange sharing also makes the initiative's design and outreach stronger with traditional knowledge about holistically raising children. As such, communities take ownership over initiatives while also advising policy refinement. This two-way dynamic cultivates progressive reforms in a manner that empowers families as agents of change. The analysis sheds light on how improvements led by local communities can strengthen government efforts through working well together from the grassroots level outward.