Jobs and Care at Once... Jung-gu, Seoul, Promotes Resident Participation Gap Care

Developmental Disabilities and Parent Healing, Weekend Emergency Care, Outdoor Physical Activity Care Platform Established... Utilizing Local Resources Such as Idle Spaces and Career-Interrupted Parents to Create Jobs & Promote Emergency Care

Resident-Led Weekend Care Program

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Jung-gu, Seoul (Mayor Seoyangho) supports the 'Junggu-style Mutual Care The Together Project' as a solution to meet various care demands such as care for people with developmental disabilities, weekend emergency care, and outdoor physical activity care.

The Junggu-style Mutual Care The Together Project is a 'resident-participation care project' that connects care demand and supply within apartment complexes and other multi-family housing to fill urgent care gaps.

Its characteristic is that it strengthens the resident community by maintaining relationships through care and complements the gaps in care provided at schools or facilities.

This project is part of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's social service sector public contest project, securing a budget of 100 million KRW, and is being promoted through the participation of resident groups and social economy organizations that have voluntarily operated within the local community.

The participating resident groups include 'Akimeopsi Juneunnamu Cooperative,' a care group for people with developmental disabilities; 'Noliro Tonghap Gyoyuk Gangsa Cooperative,' a resident instructor group; and local resident groups such as 'Mom Teacher' and 'Yukamam,' which operate communal tables and meals. These groups have already solidified their organizations through community contribution activities via the resident public contest project "Nae:il Gachi Challenge" hosted by the district office.

The Junggu-style Mutual Care The Together Project especially sees high participation from dual-income couples. They actively lead in forming neighborhood communities and expanding the resident platform.

They identify care spaces to fill after-school or weekend care gaps and jointly prepare meals. Parents with experience as academy instructors participate in developing educational content, striving to improve the quality of care.

The biggest barrier to resident-led care projects is the lack of care spaces. To overcome this, in collaboration with the local community, an outdoor artificial turf soccer field where children can run and play was created by utilizing the parking lot of a nearby church that is vacant during weekdays.

Especially amid the closure of various sports facilities due to COVID-19, lifestyle sports programs such as inline skating classes and soccer classes at the outdoor artificial turf soccer field have gained high popularity. A solid system centered on the parent community supports this by recruiting instructors and preparing snacks to ensure safe physical education for children.

Activities for vulnerable children who have fallen into educational blind spots due to COVID-19 are also significant. The online world culture camp 'Banggu-seok World Travel' educational program, developed directly by former instructor parents, has attracted participation and positive responses from about 40 vulnerable children.

Care for children with developmental disabilities, one of the care areas marginalized in the local community, is conducted as a family-wide care program including parent healing programs and child programs.

'Akimeopsi Juneunnamu Cooperative,' which is promoting this project, is exploring conversion into a social enterprise to provide stable care services for children with developmental disabilities, which are difficult to generate profits from.

The 'Junggu-style Mutual Care The Together Project,' promoted as a pilot project under the Ministry of Health and Welfare to establish a resident-led care system foundation, aims to build a sustainable care platform system by discovering idle spaces and resident manpower based on the local living area.

Additionally, the district office is forming various networks by establishing 'Junggu Smart Care,' a local win-win job platform application, creating a market where demand and supply in various care fields, including emergency care, meet.

The district office plans to expand the care platform by supporting a total of 300 million KRW in public contest project funds over three years until 2022, following this year, to ensure that resident-led care projects can be stably carried out in various fields such as child and youth care, developmental disability families, and elderly care.

Mayor Seoyangho said, "We will support this to become a model social economy model that creates local jobs in the process of local residents solving and expanding care issues by utilizing local resources."

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