Residents Take Direct Action to Solve Daily Issues Such as Waste and Recycling

Published 10 Feb.2020 06:19(KST)

Geumcheon-gu to Promote 2020 Geumcheon 1st Street Living Lab Project... Call for Organizations to Execute 'Geumcheon 1st Street Living Lab Project' from Feb 17 to Mar 11... Contest Areas Divided into Designated Topics on 'Waste, Recycling' and Free Topics
1 to 3 Projects Selected, Total Support of 60 Million KRW

The Geumcheon Living Lab 'Smart Safety, Enjoyable Imagination, Everyone TALK TALK' Forum held in November last year

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Geumcheon-gu (Mayor Yuseonghun) is publicly recruiting organizations to carry out the ‘2020 Geumcheon 1st Street Living Lab Project,’ an innovative experiment where residents and administration collaborate to address community issues, from February 17 to March 11.

The ‘Living Lab’ refers to a ‘daily life experiment’ where residents take the lead in solving everyday problems that the public sector has not been able to resolve so far, using new and creative ideas rather than conventional methods.

The call for proposals is divided into ‘designated topics,’ where public and private sectors jointly solve district issues, and ‘autonomous topics,’ which have no field restrictions.

The ‘designated topics’ are set as ‘the need to solve waste problems’ following the implementation of the 2020 total volume waste system, and ‘all experiments aimed at improving the local living environment such as waste and recycling’ following the full enforcement of separate collection of waste vinyl and PET bottles in 2021.

The ‘autonomous topics’ cover all issues that solve everyday problems regardless of the field.

Any interested organization can participate in this Living Lab project.

Organizations wishing to participate can download the application form from the Geumcheon-gu Office website (www.geumcheon.go.kr) under the Geumcheon News section, fill it out, and submit it by 6 p.m. on March 11, 2020, via email to the person in charge (jyh3010@geumcheon.go.kr).

Through screening, 1 to 3 organizations will be selected. Selected organizations will receive support within a total project budget of 60 million KRW, and after signing an agreement with the district in April, they will carry out the project in cooperation with the district from May to November.

To prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection, the district will replace the project briefing session with individual consultations for applicants, and resident education will be conducted online.

Organizations wishing to hear the project briefing can apply by contacting the Geumcheon-gu Office’s Community Autonomy Division (☏2627-2202) to schedule a visit time for individual consultation.

The Living Lab resident education will be conducted on the topics ‘Understanding Living Labs’ and ‘Domestic and International Living Lab Operation Cases’ by Center Director Yoon Chanyoung of the New Society Opening Institute, author of ‘How Juliet and the Urban Miners Change Villages and Society,’ and Vice Chairperson Won Yongsook of the Citizen Participation Research Center.

The lectures can be taken as online videos from February 13 on the village democracy platform Geumcheon 1st Street website (www.geumcheon.go.kr/1st/index.do).

The district operates the village democracy platform ‘Geumcheon 1st Street’ both online and offline, where residents directly propose agendas and create policies to solve social problems led by residents. Through the Living Lab project, Geumcheon 1st Street has promoted initiatives such as the ‘Resident Priority Parking Sharing Project’ in 2018 to solve parking issues, and in 2019, ‘Yeohang-woo-dong - A Happy Neighborhood for Women and Children’ to improve walking paths around schools, as well as ‘Improving Living Safety for Female Youth Single-Person Households.’

Geumcheon-gu Mayor Yuseonghun said, “Placing residents at the center of solving community problems, the Living Lab project, which proceeds with active resident participation from problem identification to resolution, is a meaningful experiment in community innovation. We will actively support efforts to bring about change in Geumcheon through the participation and cooperation of various social actors in solving community problems.”