Seoul City to Hold 'Elementary Care' Forum on the 19th with Local Care Institutions

Seoul City Announces 'Together Care' Initiative and Case Presentations to Address Elementary Care Gaps

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family announced on the 19th that they will hold a 'Colloquium for Creating a Collaborative Care Environment Among Care Institutions' at the Seoul Women’s Plaza on the 19th.

Since 2018, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family have been fully expanding seamless after-school care services for elementary school children to address the care gap issue. As of this year, a total of 426 local children's centers and 219 Our Neighborhood Care Centers provide safe after-school care services.

At this forum, Professor Kim Araemi of Seoul Women’s University will first present on the direction of ‘Together Care’ as a plan for solidarity and cooperation among community-based care institutions within Seoul’s elementary care policy. Based on the current status of ‘Together Care’ among Seoul’s care institutions and the limitations of the elementary care system, she will propose the necessity of creating a child-centered safe care environment and future tasks for Seoul’s care system.

During the forum, experiences from the field will be shared through cases of cooperation among care institutions and stakeholders within the community. Kim Hee-jung, director of Gangbuk No.1 Our Neighborhood Care Center, will present cases of discovering and cooperating on child-centered common agendas among various care stakeholders, and Im Mi-sim, director of Seodaemun Public Gajaeul Local Children’s Center, will share experiences of cooperation between local children’s centers and Our Neighborhood Care Centers.

Following the case presentations, a free discussion among field experts will take place to establish the direction of Seoul’s elementary care policy. Park Kyung-hyun, director of the Saem Education Welfare Research Institute, will chair the session, with three members of the Seoul Welfare Governance Childcare Subcommittee participating as discussants. The measures shared and proposed at the forum for creating a ‘Together Care’ environment among care institutions will be suggested for reflection in the future formulation of Seoul’s policy directions and detailed implementation tasks.

Jung Yeon-jeong, CEO of the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family, said, “The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family have been continuously striving to expand the public care ratio in the elementary care sector,” and added, “We hope many will participate in the discussion forum to create a child-centered ‘Together Care’ environment so that citizens with diverse care needs can access appropriate care services.”

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