Yayasan Kota Kita Surakarta
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : r***i@k******a.o*g
Mission Statement
Kota Kita is a non-profit organization based in Surakarta (Solo), Indonesia, focused on working with citizens to make cities a better place. Our interdisciplinary team bridges dialogues between governments and citizens by influencing urban policies, encouraging open access to information, providing civic education, and facilitating the involvement of all citizens — especially the marginalized and excluded. Because without these voices, we will never realize a city shaped and informed by empowered citizens — A City for All. Since 2010, we have worked in more than 22 cities in Indonesia on various projects, from small-scale urban interventions, city-wide assessments to large-scale strategic planning and visioning. We have also led and organized events such as the annual Urban Social Forum - a civil society-led forum that brings together civil societies, practitioners, and students in a collective goal to improve cities. 1. What drives our work? 1.1. We Promote the Participation of All Citizens Kota Kita believes that everyone in cities is essential; we all have roles and responsibilities to actively participate in making our communities a better place. We facilitate and promote the involvement of all people, especially the marginalized and excluded, to bring in different perspectives, voices, and strengths, to make cities better places. 1.2.We Empower Future Urban Leaders Kota Kita believes that young people are the key to drive impactful change in cities. We are committed to shaping the next generation of actively engaged urban leaders by promoting learning and developing tools. We do this through research, capacity building, and providing pedagogic experiences within our organization. 1.3. We Seek to Democratize Urban Information And Knowledge Kota Kita believes that by sharing knowledge, citizens can be equipped to take advantage of opportunities and overcome the challenges that come with rapid urbanization. We are committed to raising awareness by making urban information available and accessible to promote action and change. 1.4. We Cultivate Creativity & Innovation In Cities Kota Kita believes that creativity and innovation will be the driving force to address cities’ challenges today and beyond. We strive for out-of-the-box thinking and narratives that dares to challenge the status quo to engage and mobilize citizens into taking action and participating in the development of the cities. 2. What do we do? (Our approach) We leverage design-driven and participatory approaches to catalyze a shared-learning process between government and citizens. We recognize that participatory approaches are crucial in creating equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development as rapid urbanization leads to a range of complex, multi-dimensional challenges in cities today and in the future. Our initiatives currently center around but are not limited to, issues related to: 2.1. Urban Governance We promote participatory approaches in urban governance and policies by empowering citizens and advocating priorities for urban projects at the neighborhood, district, city, and national levels. 2.2. Urban Inclusivity We aim to mainstream the concept of inclusivity in the design, planning, and implementation of cities to ensure that all persons — regardless of age, identities, gender, abilities, and other characteristics — are included. 2.3. Urban Resilience We advocate participatory approaches in adaptation and mitigation strategies to respond to the intertwining impact of climate crisis and cities and contribute to building more resilient communities.
About This Cause
The mission to build more inclusive, resilient, and socially just cities in Indonesia is a collective effort. Your donation to Kota Kita will be used to support the implementation of the following activities: 1. Urban Citizenship Academy (UCA) Youths have tremendous energy, creativity, and awareness about issues faced by their communities. These traits, when empowered, are impactful in supporting the improvements of the urban environment around them. The Urban Citizenship Academy program is an initiative by Kota Kita to engage a new generation of young leaders and support them in solving pressing urban problems. By empowering young civil society leaders with data-driven advocacy skills and mentor support, we can begin to inspire a movement of active citizens capable of bringing about change. The Urban Citizenship Academy guides teams of participants by analyzing an urban problem and developing a feasible, compelling, and impactful plan for a neighborhood- to city-scale initiatives and intervention. It is a hands-on training exercise where participants accumulate skills that advance their ideas and agendas for improving their communities. The training develops their capacity to analyze problems, understand that these problems are not inevitable, and see that they can play an active role in addressing them to create a better future. This program provides a platform for transmitting our approach and methodologies to youth in cities across Indonesia. From 2014 to 2021, we have trained 55 groups of youth activists across Indonesia. In the last two years, the Urban Citizenship Academy has collaborated with M.Sc Social Development Practices (SDP) of the Development Planning Unit at University College London (UCL) to pair and work collaboratively with the UCA participants to conduct participatory action research in low-income neighborhoods in two Indonesian cities of Solo and Banjarmasin. ( see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgS_l-orHSs) 2. Urban Citizenship Fund (UCF) Changes at the city level must be parallel with changes at the grassroots level. The presence of grassroots, citizen-led initiatives that bring hyperlocal change is critical in improving urban environments in a sustainable and meaningful manner. The Urban Citizenship Fund (UCF) is an incubation financing scheme aiming to encourage the growth of grassroots solutions in cities by supporting nascent, citizen-led initiatives in accelerating their causes. The UCF builds on, and extends from, Kota Kita’s Urban Citizenship Academy, which focuses on equipping young urban leaders with tools, methodologies, and capacity to solve urban problems. Urban activists leading the initiatives are encouraged to prepare a proposal to the UCF to obtain early-stage financing to spark hyperlocal changes. The funds can support activities such as organizing campaigns to mobilize their cause, strengthening internal capacity through training and engagements, and even implement a small-scale pilot intervention. Examples include organizing an urban farming community in a neighborhood, mobilizing a youth movement to reduce plastic waste, organizing cyclists to promote safe ways of cycling in the city, producing campaign videos to protect river ecosystems, creating a campaign about the importance of media literacy and warding off hoaxes, amongst others. 3. Community-Centric Design Urban spaces exist in unison with communities. The design and planning of spaces are undoubtedly intertwined with the representation, scale, and access of communities living in such spaces. The Community-Centric Design focuses on a co-creation design process that cultivates the active participation of underprivileged and marginalized communities in improving their living spaces. A stronger relationship between community and spaces will foster a sense of belonging and strengthen their collective agency to bring about change. With a team of architects and planners, Kota Kita collaborates with communities in low-income neighborhoods within Indonesian cities to co-design urban spaces that are more spatially and socially functioning. The Community-Centric Design uses a participatory approach and a co-creation method to build a mutual understanding that identifies the issues facing communities, co-create potential solutions, and explore the support of other key stakeholders to implement the solutions. The Community-Centric Design has successfully implemented the two following projects: 3.1. Firm Foundation Kota Kita collaborated with a community in Sungai Jingah — a low-income neighborhood in Banjarmasin — to build and create a low-cost comfortable public space for residents on the banks of the Martapura River. As the community lives above the river, there was no available park nearby. Initial discussion with the community identified issues related to the lack of safe and accessible public space for kids to play and community members to gather and chill during their spare time. The Firm Foundation built a public space over the water with a flexible kit of parts of gabion foundations, a simple and resilient structural system that community members can assemble themselves without heavy machinery. For more information: https://www.kotakita.org/project-firm-foundation.html 3.2. Co-Design Ngampon Kota Kita engaged Ngampon residents of Solo, who work as birdcage makers, jointly design an ideal communal workspace. Despite the fame of their craft, birdcage makers in Ngampon did not have a public or private workspace and often had to work on the side of the road. A co-creation design process between the Kota Kita team and residents of Ngampon generated various ideas to improve the neighborhood’s environment and strengthen community resilience, including urban farming and community composting. Funds allocated to this initiative will support the engagement and the procurement of public spaces in underprivileged urban communities in Indonesia.