Completion of Safe Alley Construction in Seowon-dong, Gwanak-gu... Guro-gu Introduces 'AI Call Center' for Civil Complaint Phone Response

[Seoul District News] Gwanak-gu Creates Crime-Prevention Village Environment with Life-Safety Design, Psychologically and Physically Blocking Crime Opportunities; Resident Participation Programs Including Women's Self-Defense and Online CPO Security Education Foster Empathy... Seocho-gu Supports Private Small Libraries to Promote Reading Culture... Dongdaemun-gu Selected for Lifelong Learning City Project for 3 Consecutive Years... Guro-gu Provides Voice Robot Phone Consultation Service to Inform COVID-19 Test Results, Methods, Screening Clinic Locations, and Enable Self-Learning of Questions

Seowon-dong Safe Alley Light, etc.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) has completed the creation of a Safe Alley in Seowon-dong to provide residents with a safe and pleasant environment.

The ‘Safe Alley Creation Design Project’ is a public design initiative that applies Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) techniques with lifestyle safety design to deter criminal psychology, prevent crime opportunities in advance, and create a resident-led safe village.

For the creation of the Safe Alley in Seowon-dong, the district conducted an environmental analysis of the project site in close cooperation with the Crime Prevention Diagnosis Team of the Gwanak Police Station, identifying specific issues and applying on-site customized solutions that translate various resident demands into design.

Accordingly, the project was divided into three areas: ‘Adding Comfort, Subtracting Danger, Multiplying Safety,’ and proceeded with crime prevention measures tailored to each environment.

To create alleys comfortable for walking, anti-slip pavement, safety railings, handrails, and convex mirrors were installed. Light fixtures (lifestyle manner signs, territorial signs) were installed in dark alleys and nighttime blind spots. To enhance security facility functions, Safe Zone guide signs, integrated CCTV poles, and emergency bells were also installed.

Additionally, resident participation programs such as a Safe Alley Gym and online CPO (Crime Prevention Officer) method education were conducted to strengthen crime response capabilities for single female households in Seowon-dong, fostering a consensus among residents on a safe village and reducing crime anxiety.

The ‘Safe Alley Gym’ is a program that teaches self-defense techniques to protect oneself in emergencies. Participants will be recruited in February, and the program will be held every Thursday evening starting in March. Residents interested in participating can inquire at Design Dada.

The ‘Online CPO Crime Prevention Education’ conducted with the Crime Prevention Diagnosis Team of Gwanak Police Station is open to anyone without separate application on the Gwanak-gu Office website (Departments & Districts → Urban Regeneration Division → Department Data Room).

As a result of continuous efforts to expand the lifestyle safety design project, a total of 24 Safe Alleys have been created in Gwanak-gu, and this year the district plans to add a Safe Alley in Sillim-dong.

A district official stated, “We will continue to actively promote the lifestyle safety design project so that residents can live in a safe and pleasant environment.”

Seocho-gu announced that it will recruit applications for the ‘Seocho-gu Private Small Library Operation Support Project’ from the 21st to the 23rd to promote a culture of reading in daily life throughout the neighborhood.

A private small library refers to a library registered with the local government that has a building area of at least 33㎡, more than 1,000 library materials, and at least six reading seats. These libraries are mainly located in apartment community facilities, religious facilities, etc., for residents’ convenient use.

The total support budget is 30 million KRW, targeting private small libraries within the district. Specific support includes ▲‘Material purchase costs’ for book purchases, providing 1 million KRW per site for up to 18 sites, and ▲‘Reading culture program operation costs’ such as instructor fees and material costs, providing 750,000 KRW per site for up to 16 sites.

This project has been supported since 2017 to alleviate the financial difficulties of small-scale private library operations and help them establish themselves as community-based cultural spaces for residents.

Applications can be submitted by downloading the application form and project plan from the ‘Notices and Announcements’ section on the Seocho-gu website, filling them out, and sending them via email to the person in charge.

Based on the submitted project plans, document screening and review by the district’s local subsidy review committee will be conducted at the end of this month, and support recipients will be selected next month to receive subsidies.

In particular, Seocho-gu enacted the ‘Ordinance on the Operation and Support of Small Libraries in Seocho-gu’ this month, planning to extend support to cover expenses such as equipment purchase and reading club activities in the future.

The district has made various efforts to ease the financial burden on private libraries. Notably, last year, as part of the ‘Private Small Library Sharing Project,’ about 2,600 books, including those returned after one year from the public library’s book payback system, were donated to 24 private small libraries. This helped reduce costs such as book purchase expenses for private libraries.

The ‘Book Payback’ system, first implemented nationwide in 2019 by the district to revitalize local bookstores, allows residents to get a refund for books purchased at local bookstores when they return them to public libraries after reading. Returned books are then made available at public libraries for other residents to use.

Kwon Mi-jung, Director of the Culture and Tourism Division, said, “We will continue to actively support private small libraries close to residents by linking them with public libraries to foster a culture of reading and establish them as cultural communication spaces.”

Dongdaemun-gu (Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol) was newly selected as a lifelong learning city in 2020, selected for the lifelong learning city specialization project in 2021, and this year again was selected for the Ministry of Education’s public project ‘Regional Lifelong Education Activation Support Project (Lifelong Learning City Specialization - Consortium Type),’ receiving 20 million KRW in national funding.

The ‘Lifelong Learning City Specialization Support Project’ is an annual Ministry of Education initiative to activate lifelong learning in local communities. It supports various lifelong education projects to discover and nurture lifelong learning city specialization models and establish regional lifelong learning systems among 180 lifelong learning cities nationwide.

The district has been selected for the lifelong learning city public project for three consecutive years, establishing itself as an excellent lifelong learning city. This project will be conducted in cooperation with the Seoul Lifelong Education Promotion Institute under the theme of ‘Training Lifelong Education Activists and Leaders.’

Main projects include ▲Our Neighborhood Lifelong Education Activist Training Course ▲Learning and Practice Projects ▲Operation of Training Courses for Activists at Dong Lifelong Learning Centers, providing diverse lifelong learning opportunities to residents.

Yoo Deok-yeol, Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, said, “We are promoting various network projects to realize a lifelong learning city that opens residents’ dreams. We will share and spread our district’s excellent lifelong learning city cases to create a lifelong learning city that leads the future.”

Guro-gu (Mayor Lee Sung) is operating an ‘AI Call Center’ where a voice robot provides information related to COVID-19.

Guro-gu announced on the 15th, “Due to the rapid spread of Omicron recently, confirmed cases have surged, and confusion has increased due to changes in systems such as home treatment and epidemiological investigations. Therefore, we have established a COVID-19 ‘AI Call Center’ to provide residents with faster and more efficient civil complaint phone response services.”

The COVID-19 ‘AI Call Center’ is a 24-hour telephone consultation service using a voice robot that provides answers based on initially learned data such as COVID-19 work manuals and civil complaint recordings for inquiries about COVID-19.

Main information provided includes COVID-19 test results, methods, locations of screening clinics in the area, congestion status and whether reception is closed, waiting times, home treatment-linked medical institutions, and contact information for responsible departments.

Guro-gu connects calls to staff when answers are not recognized or staff response is needed. Questions that AI fails to recognize are continuously monitored, and the learning data is regularly updated and supplemented.

A Guro-gu official said, “We will continue to do our best in responding to COVID-19 by utilizing various methods such as smart technology.”

Meanwhile, Guro-gu was the first among 25 autonomous districts to implement a Seoul-type home treatment model involving local clinics. Going forward, Guro-gu plans to increase local clinic participation and build a close cooperative system with private medical institutions to support residents in safely receiving COVID-19 testing and treatment nearby.

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