Yeongdeungpo-gu Wins Minister of Health and Welfare Award for 3 Consecutive Years in Social Economy Activation Category of Regional Welfare Evaluation

Retired seniors, youth, after-school care children, apartment residents, and many representative projects... Driving 1.9x growth in (preliminary) social enterprises through local-type projects of the Korean New Deal

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Yeongdeungpo-gu (District Mayor Chae Hyun-il) won the Minister’s Award for three consecutive years in the ‘2020 Regional Welfare Project Evaluation Social Economy Activation Category’ hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in early December.

This evaluation was conducted nationwide targeting 17 metropolitan cities and provinces and 229 city and county districts to secure local government momentum for national tasks such as social economy activation and to improve welfare levels through social economy activation.

The evaluation was carried out from October through document review and on-site inspection (if necessary) of evaluation materials, with a separate ‘Evaluation Committee’ composed of private experts.

The main evaluation criteria included ▲ Establishment of a foundation for social economy activation ▲ Efforts to activate social economy in the social service sector ▲ Excellent cases of social economy.

Although the number of awardees decreased by nearly half from 10 local governments in the past two years to 6, the district unwaveringly secured the Minister’s Award for three consecutive years, demonstrating bold implementation of the slogan ‘Social Economy in Daily Life, Realizing an Open Yeongdeungpo-gu.’

Since January last year, the district has placed the dedicated Social Economy Division under the Future Vision Promotion Team and strengthened networks between residents and enterprises, steadily addressing policy tasks such as ▲ Building a community-based social economy infrastructure ▲ Creating a growth ecosystem for social economy organizations ▲ Realizing social values in daily life.

Unique district brand projects proposed jointly by residents, the community, and social economy organizations include the establishment of ‘Jipkimi Social Cooperative’ (approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport), which interprets the keywords ‘home repair and care’ as coexistence between retired seniors and youth; ‘Apartment Life Workshop,’ which utilizes idle spaces within apartment complexes to provide integrated care for children and the elderly; the ‘Social Venture Team Development Project,’ which solves community problems through residents’ innovative ideas and puts them into practice; and the ‘Social Service Project,’ which surpasses the limits of public care through after-school care and cooking care for elementary students.

Activities of companies directly implementing the Korean New Deal are also notable. In the Green New Deal sector, social economy organizations are actively involved in sharing methods for plastic waste separation, operating public clothing collection boxes, and managing urban cleanliness tasks such as bus stops. The Digital New Deal is similar.

Since last year, in collaboration with SKT, the district has been taking care of the safety and health of over 300 elderly living alone using AI speakers, alleviating loneliness through the ‘Happy Community Project,’ and using the ‘Jipkimi App,’ jointly developed with the University of Seoul, to connect supply and demand for home repair, disinfection, and organizing services within the community.

There are also job creation efforts through entrusted operation of social cooperatives at local children’s centers and social service projects to strengthen safety nets.

Along with the district’s diverse policy projects, the growth of social economy organizations is also steep. The number of (preliminary) social enterprises, which was only 43 in January last year, has grown 1.9 times to 81, and the total number of social economy organizations has reached 354.

Chae Hyun-il, Mayor of Yeongdeungpo-gu, stated, “The ‘activation of social economy,’ which we have focused on throughout the 7th local government term, is both a national task and another breakthrough for implementing the Korean New Deal. We will create various opportunities for residents, the community, and social economy organizations to work together and generate more social value.”

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