Gwanak-gu Wins 'Grand Prize' in 2024 National Local Government Disability Welfare Project Evaluation

Third Award in National Local Governments' Disability Welfare Project Evaluation... Achieving Nationwide 1st Place with Grand Prize
Fruits of Various Projects Including Strengthening Care System for Single Disabled, Expanding Mobility Rights, and Discovering Specialized Projects

Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) received the grand prize in the “2024 National Local Government Disability Welfare Project Evaluation” hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The national disability welfare project evaluation reviews the performance of disability welfare projects in each local government, discovers excellent cases, and spreads exemplary cases. This year, the evaluation was conducted targeting 229 cities, counties, and districts.

The evaluation committee, composed of experts from disability organizations, academia, and public institutions, assessed 47 indicators across four areas: ▲support for disability independence ▲support for disability services ▲disability welfare delivery system ▲excellent cases, and selected the top local governments.

In this evaluation, Gwanak-gu received the grand prize for the third time, following the top prize in 2021 and the excellence award in 2023, earning the honor of being ranked first nationwide.

Gwanak-gu was recognized for its efforts to actively promote more systematic and pioneering disability welfare policies under the vision of “Gwanak, an inclusive city where everyone is happy through warm companionship.”

In particular, the district was highly evaluated for its efforts to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities by quickly responding to changes in welfare paradigms and considering regional characteristics to discover and successfully implement various policies supporting disability independence and providing customized services.

First, the district actively developed customized projects reflecting the population characteristics of the area, where the single-person household rate is the highest nationwide and one in four people with disabilities (27%) lives alone.

To strengthen the integrated care support system for single-person disabled households, the district focused on projects such as the “Companion Robot Distribution” project using artificial intelligence (AI) and the “Starlight Narae Happy Meal” project, where elderly disabled individuals living alone share meals to build social networks.

Additionally, efforts were made to expand social participation of people with disabilities and improve their sustainable quality of life.

Gwanak-gu installed the nation’s first “electric wheelchair exclusive driving practice center” and operates safety education programs to expand mobility rights for people with disabilities.

The “Disability Tourism Activity Travel Expense Support System” is also a nationwide first. The district supports all travel expenses, including bus fares, fuel costs, and travel insurance, up to a limit of 500,000 KRW to guarantee cultural and leisure activities for people with disabilities.

Customized specialized projects considering disability types are also actively promoted.

This year, through the “Developmental Disability Independence Education Project” contest, the district discovered 13 excellent programs in the fields of arts, sports, and employment, with plans to expand these further next year.

Other projects such as the “Sign Language Information Service” that informs hearing-impaired individuals about digital device usage and the support project for vision-correcting glasses for low-income elderly visually impaired individuals have also received great responses from beneficiaries.

Park Jun-hee, Mayor of Gwanak-gu, said, “As a result of discovering various policies and striving to expand infrastructure to realize Gwanak as an inclusive city responsible for a better life for people with disabilities, we have achieved this valuable outcome today,” and added, “We will continue to do our utmost to make Gwanak-gu a happy place where both people with and without disabilities are not left out.”

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