The Model of Disaster Information Dissemination Based on Volunteer Communities: A Case Study of Volunteer Communities in Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia

This research aims to find a model of disaster information dissemination based on volunteer communities in Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia. In this research, data obtained from Focus Group Discussion (FGD) conducted by informants, in-depth interview with the experts related to this research, observation and literature review are analyzed. The sampling was done by purposive sample with criteria such as a person who (1) has been a volunteer disaster at least 1 year; (2) joins a volunteer community; (3) obtains a volunteer training (4) is active as disaster volunteer in the past year, conducting from five of volunteer communities, namely: TAGANA, UCS, PSM, SIBAT and DASI PENA. The total number of the informants is 13 people. Triangulation method is used by interviewing two of disaster practitioners who deal directly with disaster volunteer communities. The research results show (1) The person in charge for disaster information dissemination in Bandung Regency is Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) through the Operations Control Center Manager (PUSDALOPS) and the process of information dissemination begins with the early warning which is delivered to the village and sub-district or to the disaster volunteer communities via radio, SMS Gateway, words of mouth, website, blog, Twitter and Facebook; (2) There are many volunteer communities in Bandung Regency, some of which is founded by government agencies, private sectors, political parties, professional communities, the public, etc.; (3) The supervising institutions of volunteer communities provides the training to the members to have knowledges and skills to be able to deal with the disasters, protect themselves and help the others; (4) The character of the people who have experience in disaster frequently in the environment tends to think that disasters is a normal occurrence and feel like already knows everything so they are passive in seeking of disaster information. The characteristics of community are also influenced by religion and belief, environmental, economic, social and cultural factors as well as technological factors. (5) The role of the volunteer communities in the dissemination of disaster information is divided into three phases: pre-disaster, emergency response and post-disaster. The activities can be in the form of socialization, simulations and coaching for disasters, correcting the disaster disinformation, etc. (6) The volunteer communities coordinate with local community leaders/opinion leaders to make effective communication process with the public. (7) The direction of command/ coordination of disaster information dissemination based on volunteer communities started from the command of BPBD, then coordinated with the supervising institutions of volunteer communities, collaboration with opinion leaders and then prepare a good communication strategy in order to disseminate disaster information can be received by the public well. With good knowledge of the disaster, it is expected that the society becomes aware to the disaster, keeps the environment, protects themselves and helps families and the others, participating in disaster management and disaster risk reduction on pre-disaster, emergency response, and post-disaster (8) The model of disaster information dissemination is started from the policy of disaster management by appointing the person in charge for disaster information dissemination and coordinating with related parties, and then it is continued by determining the dissemination target, identifying the needs of disaster information, selecting and identifying the available information source and producing new information that has not been available yet but the people need it, composing module or disaster information package, arranging the message delivery strategy, choosing volunteer community as an information channel, coordinating with all of the parties in the field, executing the disaster information dissemination, collecting feedback, evaluating, compiling the report and recommendation from related parties as the material to make the policy of information dissemination better for the future.