Geumcheon-gu Launches Full-Scale Construction of Family Center Complex Facility... Yongsan-Style Talent Sharing 'Seorosero School' Continues for 8 Years

[Seoul District News] Geumcheon-gu to Develop Living SOC Including Family Center, Global Village Center, and Living Culture Center; Design Competition from Jan 18, Aiming for Completion in June 2024... Talent Sharing Among Residents... Yongsan-gu Recruiting and Training Resident Instructors for Lifelong Education, Offering Free Courses... Gangnam-gu Opens 'IT Convergence Education Center' for 4th Industrial Revolution Experience and Education... Yeongdeungpo-gu Designates All Elementary Schools as Child Protection Zones... Seodaemun-gu to Implement 'Illegal Mobile Advertising Collection Reward System' from March

Geumcheon-gu, Sihyeong-daero 467, where the 'Living SOC Family Center Complex Facility' will be constructed

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Geumcheon-gu (Mayor Yoo Seong-hoon) is actively promoting the construction of the ‘Living SOC Family Center Complex Facility,’ which provides customized family services tailored to family types and life cycles for local residents.

Geumcheon-gu was selected in the central government’s ‘Living SOC Complex Project’ competition and secured 1.857 billion KRW in national funding. In 2021, it completed preliminary administrative procedures including Seoul City investment review and public architecture review, and has been conducting a design competition since January 18.

The ‘Living SOC Geumcheon-gu Family Center Complex Facility’ will be located on Siheung-daero (467 Siheung-daero, Geumcheon-gu), with excellent accessibility for residents. It will be an 8-story building above ground and 1 basement level, with a total floor area of 1,910㎡. Geumcheon-gu is investing a total project cost of 13.265 billion KRW, aiming for completion in June 2024.

The facility will include family center offices, multipurpose family communication and exchange spaces, a shared childcare area, a Global Village Center supporting foreigners, and a living culture center where families and neighbors can enjoy cultural and leisure activities together.

Mayor Yoo Seong-hoon of Geumcheon-gu said, “In the COVID-19 era, small communities, especially the value of family, are newly recognized. We expect that the family center complex facility, which provides customized support by family type and services tailored to the life cycle of families, will enable residents to receive high-quality family services.”

According to the ‘2021 National Lifelong Education Statistics Survey Results’ announced by the Ministry of Education on the 19th of last month, the lifelong learning participation rate was 30.7%, a decrease of 9.3 percentage points compared to the previous year. The most prominent reason for non-participation in lifelong learning compared to the previous year was the impact of COVID-19 (29.0%).

Yongsan-gu (Mayor Seong Jang-hyun) will operate the ‘Seoro Seoro School’ in 2022. This is to provide opportunities for residents to teach and learn from each other without interruption despite COVID-19.

‘Seoro Seoro School’ is a talent-sharing lifelong education project promoted by the district. Since 2015, the district has recruited talented residents as instructors, strengthened their capabilities, and operated free small-scale courses. To date, 127 instructors have been registered, and the cumulative number of students over the past seven years is 1,816.

Talent-sharing instructors can be anyone residing or working in the area who wishes to share their talents and skills. However, those pursuing profit, political party activities, or religious proselytizing are excluded from being instructors.

The district also promotes instructor capacity building and discovery of new instructors (recruited as needed) through ▲course satisfaction surveys ▲talent-sharing instructor workshops ▲resident instructor training courses.

Jo Yoon-hye, a talent-sharing instructor who ran a Korean literacy class for adults at the Yongsan-gu Dementia Relief Center last year, said, “Seeing the elderly learn Korean and enjoy it motivates me to study harder.”

The lecture topics at Seoro Seoro School range from everyday wisdom such as knitting, health exercises, English conversation, musical instruments, caricature drawing, to professional fields. Courses consist of at least 4 sessions and up to 12 sessions and are opened when there are at least 5 students.

Kim Yong-ja, who took a storytelling class, said, “I hurried to apply when I heard about the free online courses. Although the class is over, I continue to practice for my grandchildren.”

In 2021, the district opened a total of 20 courses in humanities, culture and arts, vocational skills, civic participation, and basic literacy for 216 students. Despite the strengthening of social distancing and a surge in COVID-19 cases, talent-sharing courses continued online.

The district will operate the ‘Untact Resident Instructor Training Course’ eight times from the 17th to March (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2?5 PM). It targets residents who wish to become instructors or are currently talent-sharing instructors, teaching non-face-to-face education content development, lecture skills improvement, and adult learner coaching.

Mayor Seong Jang-hyun of Yongsan-gu said, “Anyone with talents they want to share can become an instructor, even without special techniques or being a professional instructor. Through the operation of Seoro Seoro School, where residents continuously learn and teach, we will expand the base of lifelong education.”

Gangnam-gu (Mayor Jung Soon-gyun) opened the ‘IT Convergence Education Center,’ a 91.5㎡ complex space where residents can experience and learn about 4th industrial technologies, on the 3rd at the 3rd floor of Jagok Cultural Center (100 Jagok-ro).

The center is open to all Gangnam residents and is configured to be used as an education room, open studio, and exhibition/experience zone. Regular courses such as ‘IT Convergence Education,’ which teaches operation of AI, drones, coding robots, and ‘Media Studio,’ which trains one-person media creators, start on the first week of every month. Those wishing to enroll can apply via the Gangnam-gu Office website or the Informatization Classroom call center.

Exhibitions and experiences include free access to virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and interactive (motion recognition video media), as well as all equipment used in courses. For detailed available hours, inquiries can be made to the call center.

Mayor Jung Soon-gyun said, “Gangnam-gu is transforming into a ‘smart global city’ leading South Korea in all fields including economy and culture. We will fulfill our role as a ‘Mother City’ that shares the benefits we have received with society.”

Meanwhile, the district operates a total of 42 informatization education courses at this center and other cultural centers including Dogok 2, Daechi 2, Daechi 4, Samsung 1, Samsung 2, Segok, Yeoksam 1, Cheongdam, as well as on the YouTube channel ‘Gangnam-gu1 Education Center.’

Yeongdeungpo-gu (Mayor Chae Hyun-il) will designate and operate all 23 elementary schools in the district as child protection zones starting from the 12th.

Child protection zones refer to specially designated areas within 500 meters from the boundaries of facilities such as elementary schools or kindergartens to prevent crimes targeting children such as abduction or other offenses.

The district plans to create a city worthy of a ‘UNESCO Child-Friendly City’ through active child crime prevention, including safe school routes, eradication of illegal parking, and crackdown on harmful foods.

Schools designated as child protection zones will have guide signs installed and child protection personnel assigned. Patrols during school commute times will be strengthened in cooperation with the police to prevent crimes against children.

To raise residents’ awareness, guide signs have been installed. The signs have a bright yellow background and use solar power to light LEDs during the night for high visibility.

The child protection personnel called ‘Sprout Guardian Angels’ are part of a project linked to senior citizen job creation. About 270 guardian angels provide traffic safety guidance and patrol during school commute times, temporarily protecting and reporting children in danger and taking necessary actions.

Since October 2020, the district has assigned child abuse investigation officers to conduct child abuse investigations and operates a 24-hour reporting system, among various projects to prevent child crimes.

Mayor Chae Hyun-il of Yeongdeungpo-gu said, “No matter how much we emphasize child safety projects, it is never too much. We will do our best to promote various projects worthy of a UNESCO Child-Friendly City so that all children can grow up healthily under society’s warm care.”

Seodaemun-gu (Mayor Moon Seok-jin) announced on the 10th that it will implement the ‘Illegal Mobile Advertising Collection Reward System’ starting in March to improve urban aesthetics through resident participation.

This project rewards residents selected as ‘collection reward agents’ for collecting illegal banners, flyers, posters, stickers, etc., posted or distributed along main roads, side streets, and alleys in the area, with compensation based on the amount collected.

Compensation rates are as follows: for illegal banners, 2,000 KRW for general types over 5㎡, 1,000 KRW for banner types under 5㎡; for illegal flyers/posters, 300 KRW for A4 size or larger, 200 KRW for smaller; for stickers, 500 KRW for sizes 10x10cm or larger, 300 KRW for smaller. The monthly compensation limit per person is 1.5 million KRW.

Residents aged 20 or older who wish to participate must apply in person at their local community service center by the 17th of this month.

The district plans to select two residents per each of the 14 neighborhoods, focusing on low-income individuals, unemployed persons, and those who did not participate last year. However, basic livelihood security recipients and unemployment benefit recipients are not eligible to apply.

The collection reward system is scheduled to be implemented from October to November this year, depending on the budget. The district plans to use this project to clean up illegal banners for both commercial and public use and strengthen related fines.

Mayor Moon Seok-jin of Seodaemun-gu said, “We ask for residents’ interest and participation in creating a pleasant and safe neighborhood environment by eradicating illegal advertisements.”

Residents communicating remotely through communication cards

Gangbuk-gu (Mayor Park Gyeom-su) is promoting a joint housing support project to improve the residential environment for residents living in multi-family housing in the area.

The target is multi-family housing with 20 or more households, such as apartments and row houses, within the district.

The ‘Joint Housing Support Project’ supports common facilities in multi-family housing that are aged or require safety management, as well as improving the working environment of security guards.

Support items include ▲safety construction for facilities such as retaining walls and transformers ▲repair of energy-saving and water-saving facilities ▲maintenance of roads and children’s playgrounds within complexes ▲improvement of eco-friendly facilities such as recycling separation facilities ▲installation and maintenance of outdoor security lights and CCTV due to fence or passageway openings ▲support for security guards’ working environment, totaling 18 items.

Support for maintenance of common facilities is provided at 50?70% of the project cost, and support for security guards’ working environment is up to 60% of the project cost. The support limit is 30 million KRW, and installation of automatic emergency door openers on apartment rooftops is supported up to 50% of the project cost, with a maximum of 300,000 KRW per unit.

Only one item per complex can be applied for, but applications for security guards’ working environment and rooftop emergency door automatic opener installation can be submitted simultaneously.

Additionally, pilot complexes installing communication boards within multi-family housing will be recruited. Communication boards are installed to resolve conflicts and activate communication among residents. Pilot projects receive incentives when applying for joint housing support subsidies and produce communication boards and cards with their own budgets.

Communication boards are installed in common entrances and elevators frequently used by residents. Communication cards are produced in connection with the ‘Todak Todak Talk Talk’ project, a communication design project by Seoul City to resolve neighbor conflicts. The set includes 12 cards with messages such as “Nice to meet you,” “Thank you,” “There is a baby,” “Construction is ongoing,” and “I will give you.” Residents can communicate non-face-to-face by distributing these cards to each household’s mailbox.

Inter-floor noise issues in multi-family housing have escalated beyond neighbor conflicts to crimes. This project is expected to greatly help with noise issues requiring consideration among residents.

Interested complexes can apply by visiting the Housing Division of Gangbuk-gu Office or sending registered mail by March 4. Required documents including the application form must be submitted. Forms and detailed information are available on the Gangbuk-gu Office website (Housing Division → Notice Board → Announcements).

Mayor Park Gyeom-su of Gangbuk-gu said, “Through this project, we will strive to create a safe and pleasant residential environment by repairing aged facilities in multi-family housing. We also hope many will show interest and apply for the project to improve security guards’ working conditions.”

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