Jongno District to "Prevent Isolation"... Connecting 29,000 Single-Person Households Through One-to-One Partnerships

“Good Neighbor One-to-One Partnership” Initiative Fully Launched
Neighborhood Welfare Network, Call Center, and Gosiwon Communication
Building a Comprehensive Welfare Safety Net

Jongno District in Seoul is launching a welfare safety net tailored to the area, centered on the “Good Neighbor One-to-One Partnership” initiative, to prevent isolation and lonely deaths among single-person households.

The launch ceremony of the Jongno Crisis Household Care Team held last February at the district office's Yeollim Hall.

The initiative targets all single-person households in the district who require welfare checks, regardless of income. The policy aims to minimize welfare blind spots by including not only senior citizens and vulnerable groups, but also ordinary households among young adults and those in middle age.

The core of the program is a neighborhood welfare check network led by private organizations and honorary social welfare officials. Welfare centers, counseling centers for tiny room dwellers, neighborhood stores, apartment management offices, post offices, police stations, and fire stations form the foundation of this collaborative effort. These partners will check in via phone or home visits at least twice a week and participate in walks, exercise, and meals together to help alleviate feelings of loneliness.

A crisis response system will also be established. The district will operate a KakaoTalk-based reporting channel, “Jongno Good Neighbors,” and a dedicated call center for single-person households (02-2148-1104), making it easy for anyone to report households in crisis. The district will also introduce a four-stage support system—“Discovery-Connection-Relationship Building-Monitoring”—that starts with investigations using big data on utility disconnections and leads to police reports if necessary.

For the 187 gosiwons (small rooming houses) in the district, a program called “Connecting Hearts at Gosiwons: Neighbor Communication Day” will be run. This will be supplemented by meetings with gosiwon managers and QR code-based consultations on housing, employment, and health, all aimed at fostering social relationships. Other specialized programs by neighborhood include sharing side dishes, beauty outing events, meal kit deliveries, and birthday celebrations for senior citizens.

Jongno District Mayor Chung Moonheon stated, “Social isolation is not merely an individual issue, but a challenge that must be addressed by the entire community,” adding, “We will create an environment where everyone can be a good neighbor to one another and build a welfare community unique to Jongno that carefully supports the life of each single-person household.”

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