Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation Holds Online Public Relations Training

JAKARTA (April 2nd 2020) - As many as 278 people at various centers and workshops at the Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation of the Ministry of Social Affairs attended Public Relations Training via video conference to maintain social distancing during working from home (WFH) following the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.

"This activity is the first time in the Ministry of Social Affairs with this many participants. For us, when we cannot meet face to face because maintaining social distancing does not mean the activity cannot be carried out. With the support of video conference technology we are still able to conduct training effectively and save budget considering the participants. "You can participate in this training from their respective homes / workplaces," said Director General of Social Rehabilitation Harry Hikmat in Jakarta, Tuesday, after holding a video conference.

He said public relations training was very important to strengthening the ability of Ministry of Social employees, especially those under the Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation. Public relations has a very important role in conveying government performance achievements, disseminating policies and programs that have an impact on the public, and fighting HOAX.

"As the direction of the Minister of Social Affairs Juliari P. Batubara that the Ministry of Social Affairs must be Humanist, Adaptive, Dedicative, Inclusive and Responsive, strengthening the ability of the PR team is crucial. They must move quickly to convey information while responding to public needs in the era of information technology that is so fast." said the Director General who directly led the course of the training to completion.

The Director General explained that the duties of the Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation are dealing with various social problems that have different service characteristics, specific handling patterns, and are related to human rights and humanitarian aspects.

"Many activists, institutions, social organizations, communities, and even international institutions are interested in social issues in the social rehabilitation sector. Therefore, public relations is an instrument to ensure that the wider community understands what the Ministry of Social Affairs is doing," explained the Director General of Social Rehabilitation.

The Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation has five directorates, namely the Directorate of Social Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities, the Directorate of Social Rehabilitation for the Children, the Directorate of Social Rehabilitation for Victims of Drug Abuse, the Directorate of Social Rehabilitation for the Elderly, and the Directorate of Social Rehabilitation for the Social Tuna and Human Trafficking Victims. The total number of Balai and Loka under the Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation is 41.

"The Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation is a service center that is the flagship of the Ministry of Social Affairs which every day faces people with social problems, so there are professional and ethical guidelines that must be enforced," continued the Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation.

In addition to reporting ethics, the Director General of Social Rehabilitation also asked the sources to provide information on content that was not just a reportage, but also contained messages. This message will be useful for people who read and can be conveyed in any media.

"Make good use of various print and electronic media. Make friends and network with fellow journalists. Through them we can reach out to the public and voice the policies and performance achievements of the Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation," said Harry to all participants.

This training presented three resource persons who are competent in the field of public relations, namely Communication Consultant and Former Government Public Relations Officer (THP) Desy Saputra, Head of the Public Relations Sub Division of the Directorate General of Social Protection and Security (Linjamsos) Alek Triyono, and Creator Journalist Idamana Banjiwo.

In her presentation, Desy explained the importance of understanding the media's needs in reporting. Among them are fast and accurate information, supported by in-depth data and facts and easy to understand presentation. He also shared tips and tricks for writing press releases that deserve to be published in the media and how to strengthening networking with the media.

Furthermore, the resource person, Alek Triyono, explained the material on public relations management in government agencies. He explained that an agency must have a strong public relations team to introduce its programs to the public.

"The news delivered by the PR team is not only focused on mainstream media such as television, radio, print, and online, but also must spread information through contemporary social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube," said the man with glasses.

Alek also explained that to achieve ideal public relations, it must also be supported by competent human resources, and also supported by qualified equipment, including by providing a studio as a production space.

The last presentation was delivered by Idamana Banjiwo, who has various experiences about journalistic video. He explained how to make news video content packaged in various presentation formats. Idam, a former Kompas TV journalist, also gave several examples of standard reporting tools such as audio recording cameras.

The training which lasts for 4 hours is supported by the Ministry of Social Affairs Data and Information Center (Pusdatin) with a very qualified internet connection. It was proven that during the hours of training and question and answer, the training went smoothly, there were no lost connections, and all participants were able to receive the material very well. Participants from all over Indonesia included Temanggung, Surakarta, Batu Raden, Makassar, Medan, Jambi, Palembang, Pati, Mataram, Denpasar, Magelang, etc. They are the Public Relations of the Directorate General of Social Rehabilitation, PR officers at the centers and workshops, Social Workers, Social Counselors, Psychologists, Skills Instructors, to the Head of the Center, Head of Loka, etc. The participants were very enthusiastic about participating in this training. It was proven that there were many questions via chat from Zoom Meeting.

"This training now realizes that public relations requires expertise, militancy and creativity. We will conduct further training per cluster, namely the Children Cluster, the Disability Cluster, the Victims of Drug Abuse Cluster, the Elderly Cluster and the Social Tuna and Human Trafficking Victims Cluster," concluded Harry.