Gwangju Seo-gu Selected as an 'Innovative Best Practice' in the Hope Delivery Service Project

Published 25 Nov.2021 13:29(KST)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Shin Dong-ho] Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Seo Dae-seok) announced on the 25th that its ‘Hope Delivery Tong(通)’ project was selected as an excellent innovation case in the ‘Resident Life Innovation Excellent Case’ category of the nationwide local government innovation evaluation hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

The ‘Resident Life Innovation Excellent Case’ is an initiative by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to select outstanding cases for the purpose of spreading and sharing regional innovations, promoting and disseminating them to other local governments. The selected ‘Resident Life Innovation Excellent Cases’ are publicized nationwide to encourage benchmarking and adoption.

In this innovation evaluation, among 468 cases nationwide, Seo-gu’s ‘Hope Delivery Tong(通)’ project was selected as a spreading case.

The ‘Hope Delivery Tong(通)’ project was launched to identify vulnerable groups isolated from the outside in the post-COVID-19 era. It was inspired by a case where a lunch delivery worker reported to the local administrative welfare center after noticing children solving their meals by themselves in a house without heating during delivery work.

Currently, due to COVID-19, delivery workers cannot check inside homes, so they identify households with many overdue tax notices posted on the door or with accumulated garbage suggesting hoarding disorder, and connect them to the relevant local government.

For the project, Seo-gu signed agreements with delivery companies in the district to discover and support vulnerable groups found during deliveries. Recognizing its achievements in this evaluation, it was selected for this year’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety Resident Life Innovation Case Expansion Support Project and received the Innovation Champion plaque.

Seo Dae-seok, Mayor of Seo-gu, said, “I am pleased that the innovation aimed at early detection of at-risk households through valuable reports from delivery workers has been recognized. We will continue to implement inclusive public services that residents can feel through bold innovation and challenges.”