Pyeongtaek City Wins Minister of the Interior and Safety Award at "Welfare and Safety Service Best Practices Contest"

Pyeongtaek City in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 4th that it received the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award at the "2025 Township and Neighborhood Welfare and Safety Service Improvement Best Practices Contest," hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and held at the Government Sejong Complex on the 3rd. With this award, the city will receive a special grant of 10 million won.

Officials from Pyeongtaek City who won awards at the 'Welfare and Safety Service Excellence Case Contest' held at the Government Sejong Complex on the 3rd are posing for a commemorative photo. Provided by Pyeongtaek City

This year’s contest received 104 entries from across the country, and 22 local governments were selected for their outstanding cases. Pyeongtaek City received the Encouragement Award in the safety category.

The city implemented a welfare and safety project, focusing on the repeated risks of fires and the occurrence of disaster victims among vulnerable groups in areas with a high concentration of old houses in the old downtown. Through the project, the city established a "Welfare and Safety Council" in Anjung-eup, Jungang-dong, and Seojeong-dong by appointing not only existing members of the local community welfare council but also additional experts in the field of local safety. The council directly identified 60 households vulnerable to fire in the area and meticulously assessed the risk level for each household.

Additionally, the city signed a business agreement with the Pyeongtaek branch of the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation and jointly conducted electrical safety inspections. For 30 high-risk households, the city also carried out electrical facility improvement projects.

For 21 households facing difficulties in mobility and immediate response, the city provided free communication support and installed Internet of Things (IoT) devices for fire and electric leakage detection. These devices are equipped with a system that, upon detecting fire risk, immediately sends an alert to the Welfare and Safety Council member matched one-on-one with the recipient, while also automatically reporting to emergency services (119).

In particular, the city received high marks for establishing a collaborative model involving nine organizations and 91 participants from public, private, and specialized agencies during the course of the project.

Kim Daehwan, Director of Welfare at Pyeongtaek City, said, "The council members’ attentive welfare checks and efforts to solve problems on the ground have become a great asset to local welfare in Pyeongtaek City," adding, "We will continue to strengthen welfare policies that protect the lives and safety of our citizens."

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