Building community financial literacy through cooperative management training in Dahai village

Abstract

This community service article reports a financial management training program conducted for cooperative and community economic institution actors in Dahai Village, Paringin, Balangan Regency. The program responded to practical problems commonly found in community-based economic organizations, including limited financial literacy, inconsistent transaction recording, weak preparation of simple financial statements, and low confidence in interpreting financial ratios. The activity aimed to strengthen participants' capacity to plan funds, record transactions, prepare basic financial reports, calculate simple financial ratios, and use financial information for accountable decision making. The program used a participatory training approach consisting of preliminary observation, lectures, guided discussion, question-and-answer sessions, financial statement exercises, simple ratio analysis simulations, and participant evaluation. The participants consisted of 30 cooperative administrators, supervisors, members, staff, and community economic institution managers. The results showed that all participants completed the financial statement and ratio calculation exercises, while approximately 85 percent demonstrated the ability to interpret financial information with guidance. The activity also increased participants' awareness that financial statements are not merely administrative documents but instruments for transparency, fund control, and institutional sustainability. The findings indicate that practical and contextual cooperative management training can improve community financial literacy, although continued mentoring is needed to strengthen participants' ability to analyze and apply financial information independently.