Gwanak-gu Overcomes COVID-19 Blues by Learning and Enjoying Remotely

Operating green healing programs like non-face-to-face forest experiences, family forest festivals, and fresh gardens to overcome COVID-19 blues... Receiving positive responses from residents through non-face-to-face education using YouTube and ZOOM programs

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) announced that it is providing various park green space programs and non-face-to-face educational programs to alleviate COVID-19 blues among residents who are exhausted from prolonged stay-at-home life due to COVID-19.

First, the district offers outdoor activity spaces where social distancing is possible to residents who face restrictions on indoor activities due to COVID-19, operating various park green space programs that use forests as a medium to relieve COVID-19 blues.

The district replaced the existing forest utilization programs with small-scale, non-face-to-face programs. The forest interpretation program, which was held around Gwanaksan Urban Natural Park, now provides autonomous forest experiences using interpretation materials and QR code exhibitions for non-face-to-face participation.

Additionally, Nakseongdae, Seonwoo Park, and Samsung-dong Infant Forest Experience Centers conduct real-time non-face-to-face infant forest experiences via ZOOM for regularly using institutions such as daycare centers. For the general public and groups, the district offers a “Stay-at-Home Forest Play” program that provides self-produced forest play videos and kits, enabling forest experiences without time and space constraints.

The family forest festival held at Cheongryongsan and Samsung-dong Infant Forest Experience Facilities was also successfully conducted with great enthusiasm from participants. The program, designed in an eco-teering format where participants explore and solve missions prepared at each location independently to avoid overlapping routes, received high satisfaction from participants.

Fresh Garden Programs utilizing urban gardens in welfare facilities and senior centers are also underway.

This year, the district established 17 urban gardens and distributed 1,300 box gardens, supporting easy participation in urban agriculture by producing and distributing box garden cultivation manual videos and dispatching garden managers.

Moreover, a horticultural therapy program for the elderly is being operated using gardens created outside senior centers.

Meanwhile, the district is also running various non-face-to-face lectures that residents can easily watch and follow at home. A representative example is the art psychology education special lecture conducted for parents of elementary, middle, and high school students in the area. This program helps overcome parenting burdens and feelings of depression and anxiety caused by the prolonged COVID-19 situation through art, delivered as a live online class via ZOOM, contributing to overcoming COVID-19 blues and supporting healthy child-rearing for happy families.

In August, the Humanities Support Center & Lifelong Learning Center YouTube channel was launched to provide access to various lifelong learning courses online. This aims to offer diverse lectures to residents without time and space limitations as a new way of learning and education in the post-COVID-19 era where non-face-to-face interaction has become the norm.

Through this, the district provides talent-sharing school lectures connecting residents with various talents and those eager to learn, as well as professional courses such as ▲MS Office program lectures ▲Photoshop lectures ▲Origami classes ▲Basic KakaoTalk usage lectures, along with practical lectures for seniors.

In particular, the “Room Corner Humanities Travel” lectures, domestic and European editions, which help relieve the frustration felt due to COVID-19 through various humanities topics, recorded a total of 8,300 views. The non-face-to-face book talk “After Work Humanities,” where participants directly converse with authors via ZOOM, has also received great response from residents, effectively playing a role in alleviating COVID-19 blues.

Mayor Park Jun-hee said, “We are implementing multifaceted healing programs for residents exhausted by COVID-19,” adding, “We will continue to do our best in psychological quarantine for residents as thoroughly as we do in COVID-19 prevention.”

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