Gwanak-gu Receives Minister of Health and Welfare Award for Identifying and Supporting Vulnerable Households

Discovery of Welfare Blind Spots through Online and Offline Resident Discovery Teams and Nationwide First Operation of Moving-in and Counseling Report Forms

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) was honored with the Minister of Health and Welfare Award for being selected as an outstanding local government in the discovery and support of welfare blind spots during the winter of 2019.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare selected 23 institutions with excellent performance among 229 local governments nationwide that actively worked to protect vulnerable groups during the implementation period of the 'Winter Welfare Blind Spot Discovery and Support Measures.'

In November of last year, the district held a public-private forum with 250 participants including residents, welfare organizations, and civic groups on the topic of "How to discover and care for neighbors in crisis," raising awareness about neighbors in welfare blind spots facing difficulties.

They operated offline discovery teams consisting of 1,236 voluntarily formed residents called the 'Hope Discovery Team' and 127 'Neighbor Watchers,' as well as an online discovery team of 991 members called 'Let's Join Welfare Talk Friends,' enabling emergency support through local community centers anytime a crisis household is found at their workplace or surroundings, 365 days a year.

Continuous activities of the online and offline resident discovery teams organically connect immediate case management for households in crisis situations.

Additionally, the district runs its own discovery projects to eliminate welfare blind spots. They conducted a full survey of 226 households whose resident registration was canceled due to unavoidable crisis situations and then re-registered, discovering 62 households in need of help and providing customized welfare services linked with public and private resources.

In particular, with the determination to care for crisis households from the very moment they become Gwanak-gu residents, welfare counseling consent is directly obtained at the time of moving-in registration to proactively identify welfare blind spots.

The 'Moving-in and Counseling Report Operation,' implemented for the first time nationwide, achieved the discovery of 397 crisis households last winter and was expanded throughout Seoul.

This outstanding local government selection is also the result of dedicated efforts following a North Korean defector mother and child incident last year, including intensive investigation of a total of 30,160 high-risk crisis households from September to December, counseling 11,990 households, and providing emergency support to 2,850 households.

Mayor Park Jun-hee said, "Despite the prolonged COVID-19 situation, we are accelerating the discovery of welfare blind spots through non-face-to-face methods such as phone calls and SNS," and added, "We will continue to do our best to manage the safety of residents vulnerable to summer heatwaves, such as the elderly and low-income groups, through the active activities of local resident discovery teams and staff."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.