Gwangyang Community Self-Sufficiency Center Selected as 'Best Institution' by Ministry of Health and Welfare

The Only One in Jeonnam for Performance Evaluation, Top 10% Nationwide

Gwangyang City in Jeollanam-do announced on the 1st that the Gwangyang Regional Self-Support Center was selected as the only top-performing institution in Jeollanam-do in the ‘2021~2022 Regional Self-Support Center Performance Evaluation’ hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2023.

The Regional Self-Support Center Performance Evaluation is conducted every two years by the Ministry of Health and Welfare targeting regional self-support centers that provide integrated job opportunities and welfare services to economically empower low-income working poor.

Obaek Noodles (Restaurant) [Photo provided by Gwangyang City]

This evaluation was conducted on 228 regional self-support centers nationwide, based on 15 evaluation criteria including self-support performance rates (employment and entrepreneurship rates, education completion rates, asset formation project retention and success rates, etc.), establishment and support of self-support enterprises, utilization of community resources, and the capability of staff to carry out projects.

The Gwangyang Regional Self-Support Center earned high scores in indicators such as salary fluctuation rate, increase rate of project participants, social contribution rate, benefit withdrawal rate, Gwangyang City’s self-support fund support and administrative support, and external project linkage indicators, earning the honor of being the top-performing institution.

With this top-performing institution selection, the Gwangyang Regional Self-Support Center will receive a plaque recognizing it as an excellent regional self-support center and additional operating funds.

Lee Jae-ho, the center director who also serves as the president of the Korea Regional Self-Support Center Association, said, “The value of self-support lies in instilling hope that a better tomorrow can be created for low-income people, and we will focus on promoting self-support projects through the cooperation and communication of participants. We will make this top-performing institution selection an opportunity to realize the integration of the local community and the dreams of low-income groups.”

Park Jeong-geum, head of the Resident Welfare Division, said, “Self-support work is an important project that not only provides jobs for low-income vulnerable groups but also offers various social services to the local community, and we will strive harder to revitalize self-support work.”

Meanwhile, the Gwangyang Regional Self-Support Center currently supports the self-support and independence of about 80 low-income residents in Gwangyang City through 11 self-support work teams including Obaek Noodles (restaurant), Saladwa (cafe), Toy Cleaning (cleaning toys at daycare centers), and Bedding (laundry business). So far, it has established eight self-support enterprises, playing a pivotal role in the social economy within the Gwangyang area.

In particular, recently, through cooperation with local companies such as POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks and Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority, various new project teams have been created to generate jobs, and diverse programs such as psychological counseling and cultural experiences for vulnerable groups are being conducted as community services.

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