Seong Jang-hyun, Yongsan District Mayor, Receives 1st Annual Constitution Award

Awards Ceremony Hosted by Korea Constitutional Association Held on the 14th at CCMM Building... Seong Jang-hyun, District Mayor, Praised for Dementia Management Project and Senior Citizens' Day Operations

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seong Jang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, received the 1st Korea Constitutional Award hosted by the Korea Constitutional Association on the 14th.

The award ceremony was held at the CCMM Building (101 Yeoui Park-ro) in Yeongdeungpo-gu, with 30 awardees including governors, mayors, and district heads in attendance.

The award recognized contributions to protecting constitutional values, promoting national prosperity and public welfare, establishing national future strategies, and nurturing national talents.

In particular, Mayor Seong received high praise from the judging committee for dementia management projects, the operation of Senior Citizens' Day, the establishment of Yongsan Dream Tree Comprehensive Town, and youth career experience programs.

The district established a Dementia Safety Center at the public health center in 2009 and has continued various projects such as visiting dementia screening tests. In addition, by constructing the new Han-nam Senior Nursing Home in 2013 and expanding the Yongsan Senior Specialized Nursing Home in Hyochang-dong, the district built infrastructure for nursing facilities in the area. Currently, it is accelerating the creation of a dementia-specialized long-term care facility (tentatively named Dementia Safety Village) using the site of the former Yangju residents' recreation center.

Senior Citizens' Day is a self-established commemorative day by the district, separate from the legal holiday of Senior Citizens' Day (October 2). Since 2015, the district has held a large-scale festival every May at Yongsan Family Park, hosting 10,000 seniors, but this year it was inevitably not held. Instead, the district recently delivered a letter saying "We earnestly wish for the health of our seniors" and 190,000 KF masks individually to 37,000 seniors.

Yongsan Dream Tree Comprehensive Town is the greatest achievement of the previous elected administration's education projects. Utilizing the old Yongsan-gu Office building built in 1978, it created a 8,380㎡ welfare facility for children and youth. It houses the Youth Culture House, Toy Land, Native Speaker Foreign Language Classroom, and Comprehensive Childcare Support Center. Although currently closed, various non-face-to-face programs continue to be conducted.

The youth career experience program also draws attention. It is a project that has been conducted for nine years in cooperation with seven local academic high schools: Baemun High School, Boseong Girls' High School, Seongsim Girls' High School, Shingwang Girls' High School, Osan High School, Yongsan High School, and Jungkyung High School. The program has operated about 60 courses per semester with instructors including teachers, university professors, and external experts. However, this year, due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), only 25 online courses were offered in the second semester.

The Korea Constitutional Association, which hosted this award ceremony, is composed of former members of the National Assembly from the Constituent Assembly to the 20th National Assembly. It conducts policy research and proposals for constitutional development, constitutional commemorative projects, and awards the Constitutional Award as a subsidiary project.

Seong Jang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, said, “I am pleased to receive this meaningful award from the Korea Constitutional Association,” and added, “I will fulfill my duties as the head of a local government to carry on the values and meaning of the Constitution.”

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