"Innovating Senior Centers" Busan Gijang-gun Promotes 'Miracle Senior Center'

A 'Miracle' Gift Project for Seniors with Health, Comfort, and Learning

Computer Distribution and Public Wi-Fi Installation... Enhancing Digital Literacy Among the Elderly

Busan Gijang County Office.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Playing, resting, and learning to regain vitality in life. That place is a senior center that gives a ‘miracle’ to the elderly.

Busan Gijang-gun has been promoting the ‘Miracle Senior Center’ project since 2019 to improve senior centers, spaces for the elderly, into places of health, comfort, and learning in response to the aging era.

The ‘Miracle Senior Center’ is an innovation to transform senior centers, the most easily accessible places for the elderly, into multifunctional facilities. It is a project to create leisure facilities and comfortable resting spaces.

It is being promoted in five key areas: ▲smooth operation of senior centers, ▲support for active leisure activities, ▲expansion of customized activation programs, ▲establishment of a healthy, pleasant, and safe environment, and ▲creation of a learning environment.

Support is provided for heating and cooling costs, rice, and snacks to ensure smooth operation of senior centers, and operation helpers and lunch helpers are dispatched to support active leisure activities.

Also, a consultative body is formed to promote customized activation programs, and a circulating program manager is assigned. Air curtains, air purifiers, and water purifiers are installed to build a healthy, pleasant, and safe environment, and renovation of senior centers, computer equipment, and supplies are supported to create a learning environment. This is the site of so-called senior center innovation, where as many as 23 projects are being carried out for the ‘miracle.’

The ‘Miracle Senior Center’ fully reflects the status and conditions of the elderly in Gijang-gun, including the elderly population, number of senior centers, and number of users of senior centers.

As of the end of December 2020, the population aged 65 and over in Gijang-gun was 27,711, accounting for 15.87% of the total population of 174,545, and the elderly population is increasing every year.

Also, as of January 2021, 8,670 elderly people are currently using 286 senior centers in Gijang-gun, and the number of users of senior centers is also showing an increasing trend.

To prepare for the future of the 4th Industrial Revolution and reduce the digital divide in an aging society, Gijang-gun completed the distribution of computer equipment including computers and the establishment of public Wi-Fi in 279 senior centers in the district in October 2019, laying the foundation for informatization projects.

Gijang-gun plans to digitalize all accounting-related documents to ensure transparency of subsidy budgets provided to senior centers.

All senior centers will be supplied with computer equipment, and necessary education and skills will be provided. In addition, helpers will be assigned by district to enable senior centers to operate subsidy projects from planning to settlement by themselves, and support will be provided for the digitalization of subsidy settlement tasks.

A Gijang-gun official said, “In a non-face-to-face society, we plan to dispatch helpers to senior centers to operate informatization education so that the elderly are not excluded due to the digital divide,” and added, “We will successfully lead the Miracle Senior Center project through various customized specialized programs and facility improvements.”

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