'Chatdong' Leading Social Care in Nowon-gu Wins Two Seoul Metropolitan Government Empathy Policy Awards

Touching Hearts! 'Nowon Ddokddokddok Care Team' Wins Autonomous District Grand Prize... Sanggye 1-dong's 'Watching, Embracing, and Hugging Joint Response Operation for Solitary Death Prevention' Wins Excellence Award at Dong Resident Center... Nowon-gu Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for Silo Dismantling at Gwangwoon University Station Logistics Site

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Nowon-gu (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced that it has won two awards, the ‘Grand Prize’ and the ‘Excellence Award,’ in the ‘2021 Visiting Community Service Center Project Autonomous District Empathy Policy’ hosted by Seoul City.

Since the launch of the Visiting Community Service Center (hereinafter ‘Chatdong’) in 2018, Seoul City has been promoting the Chatdong Empathy Policy Contest targeting 25 autonomous districts and 425 community service centers to discover, share, and spread excellent policies and cases.

The district enjoyed double celebrations as it won the autonomous district grand prize with ‘Knocking on the Heart! Nowon Toktoktok Care Team’ and the community service center excellence award with Sanggye 1-dong’s ‘Joint Response Operation for Preventing Solitary Deaths: Watching, Embracing, and Caring.’

For this Chatdong excellent case evaluation, the district cited strategies focusing on ▲strengthening the system for discovering and supporting welfare blind spots and building a dense welfare network ▲strengthening the recovery of the local community through communication and bonding based on residents.

First, the ‘Knocking on the Door of the Heart! Nowon Toktoktok Care Team,’ which won the autonomous district grand prize, is a project aimed at strengthening the care system for households excluded from existing public and private care service projects, such as low-income elderly, disabled persons, middle-aged single-person households, and single-parent families. According to the demand of each of the 19 dongs, care teams composed of local residents continuously check on vulnerable welfare recipients and cooperate with welfare planners to provide welfare services.

The care team, which started activities in February this year, has played a significant role in establishing a ‘dense Nowon-type care system’ by managing 6,737 people as of the end of November 2021 and achieving 140,281 cases of discovering and supporting vulnerable groups despite the COVID-19 situation.

Above all, the care team is composed of local residents who have a strong sense of mission in caring for their neighbors, and as cases of overcoming emergencies thanks to the care team have accumulated, pride in their activities is gradually increasing. Also, continuous counseling has built a trust relationship between the members and care households, greatly helping welfare recipients to comfortably request the necessary services.

Sanggye 1-dong’s ‘Joint Response Operation for Preventing Solitary Deaths: Watching, Embracing, and Caring,’ which won the excellence award in the community empathy policy, attracted great attention by promoting various solitary death prevention projects through resident networks.

Representative initiatives include ▲selecting 23 high-risk solitary death households as priority management targets through surveys and continuous monitoring by neighbor watchers ▲opening and operating a KakaoTalk channel so that local stores and management offices can report crisis households at any time ▲‘Making and Sharing 100 servings of Jjajangmyeon’ to share warmth through sharing ▲‘Flower Anggeum Cake Making’ activities to bring isolated households into social networks, helping them become residents within the community rather than isolated households.

Mayor Oh Seung-rok said, “The true meaning of Chatdong seems to be making people feel that they are not alone and that we are connected and linked,” adding, “I sincerely congratulate Chatdong, which is working hard to build a dense Nowon-type welfare system where neighbors care for neighbors, for bearing good fruit.”

Nowon-gu (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced that it held a groundbreaking ceremony for the dismantling of silos within the Kwangwoon University Station logistics site at 2 p.m. on the 30th.

The ceremony was held to commemorate the start of dismantling work on four cylindrical silos, each 40 meters high and 20 meters in diameter, located within the Kwangwoon University Station logistics site, and to announce the full-scale development project of the Kwangwoon University Station area.

The district initially planned to dismantle the silos in December last year after logistics operations were suspended, but the dockworkers’ union, which held the logistics handling supply rights, delayed the work by occupying the site without permission and staging a sit-in protest demanding job security and compensation.

In response, the district actively mediated between the developer Hyundai Development Company and the dockworkers’ union, and the dispute was amicably resolved in August.

Starting with this groundbreaking ceremony, the Kwangwoon University Station area development project is expected to proceed with the district unit plan decision in the first half of next year and begin construction in the second half.

The Kwangwoon University Station area development is the largest development project in the northeastern region, creating a living infrastructure including a landmark mixed-use building up to 49 floors, a residential-commercial apartment complex with 2,694 households, multipurpose sports facilities, and a library on a 148,166㎡ site around Kwangwoon University Station on Subway Line 1.

It is expected to be reborn as a new economic hub in the northeastern region, with completion targeted for 2026.

Mayor Oh Seung-rok of Nowon-gu said, “With the dismantling of the silos, a long-cherished project for Wolgye-dong residents, the Kwangwoon University Station area development project can also gain momentum,” adding, “We will carefully oversee the remaining stages going forward.”

◆Nowon-gu Personnel ▲Acting Media Public Relations Officer Jang Joo-hyun ▲Head of Administrative Support Division Hwang Cheol-geun ▲Head of Autonomous Safety Division Jang Jae-hoon ▲Head of Lifelong Learning Division Min Seon-hee ▲Head of Planning and Budget Division Nam Mi-sook ▲Head of Job Economy Division Choi Cheol-joo ▲Acting Head of Tax Division 2 Moon Min-gyu ▲Acting Head of Education Support Division Choi Jae-yeon ▲Head of Apartment Support Division Ahn Tae-yu ▲Head of Urban Regeneration Division Hwang Seon-ui ▲Acting Head of Green Environment Division Jo Byung-joo ▲Acting Head of Urban Landscape Division Song Chang-hoon ▲Specialist of the Council Secretariat Kim Hu-geun ▲Specialist of the Council Secretariat Lim Mi-jung ▲Acting Head of Wolgye 3-dong Kim Dong-seok ▲Acting Head of Gongneung 1-dong Kim Chan-ho ▲Acting Head of Junggye 1-dong Kim Han-gi

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