The role of youth in disaster mitigation

Disasters are an event caused by natural,
non-natural and human factors that can threaten and disrupt
people's lives and their environment. Disaster can be happen
anywhere. The city of Surabaya as one of the areas with a high
disaster risk index must be aware of the occurrence of
disasters. One of the negative impacts caused by a disaster can
be reduced by implementing mitigation involving various
parties, including youth. Youth as the largest age group and
are active individuals do not seem to have a significant part in
the disaster mitigation process. Therefore, purpose of this
study was to identify roles are played by youth in the disaster
mitigation process especially in areas that have a high disaster
risk index. This study was a quantitative descriptive study
with survey method. Respondents of this study was 170 youth
spread throughout the sub-districts Surabaya. The results
showed that of the 15 activities/roles that can be carried out in
mitigation activities, both active and passive, the most roles
performed by adolescents was in sufficient roles. Meanwhile,
when viewed from each role performed, out of 15 roles that
can be performed by youth activities for the implementation of environmental conservation have the highest average value of 2.8. Based on the results of these studies indicated that the optimization of the role of youth in mitigation actions still needs to be improved. Generally, youth already have basic knowledge related to disasters that they gain knowledge by searching for themselves. Youth are needed to strengthen knowledge, train and facilitate to be more actively involve in disaster mitigation.