Yongin City Leads in Discovering and Supporting Vulnerable Children

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Yongin City is taking the lead in discovering vulnerable children and providing comprehensive support.

The city has been implementing the Dream Start project since 2011 to address relative disparities that children from vulnerable families—including low-income, single-parent, and disabled households—face across society, culture, economy, and education, and to support their dreams.

The most distinctive feature of the Dream Start project is that rather than providing blanket support for vulnerable children, it directly discovers children 12 and under who require case management and provides customized support.

Child integration coordinators discover children in need of assistance across eups, myeons, and dongs, and provide customized programs in five areas: ▲physical health ▲cognitive and language development ▲emotional and behavioral development ▲parental and family support ▲and others.

Through last year, a total of 4,000 children have been discovered and supported. This year, the city is operating 30 programs for 477 children, including health checkups, obesity management, dream tree reading guidance, mental health initiatives, horticultural therapy, and art classes.

In particular, the city is linking various local resources including experts and institutions to provide quality programs to children.

Among programs for children's physical health, "Free Local Herbal Doctor Support Dog Days Treatment (冬病夏治)" is conducted in partnership with Hamsoah Oriental Medicine Clinic within the city. This year, health consultations were provided to 70 children, along with Saengmaeksan herbal concentrate and Sambok adhesive patches.

Since February, to reduce the academic gap among vulnerable children caused by their inability to attend school due to COVID-19, the city has been offering English, mathematics, art classes, and humanities courses led by professional instructors. Fifty children are participating in these classes through the video conferencing app ZOOM.

Additionally, to help children who spend significant time alone at home cope with safety accidents, the city conducted safety education with 30 children in cooperation with the Yongin Fire Department, covering fire evacuation methods, fire extinguisher use, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and disaster preparedness.

Parent education is also being provided to facilitate communication and build empathy among children in the program, their parents, and grandparents or other caregivers. Forty people are participating in the education being held via ZOOM through the 23rd.

In addition, regular case meetings and evaluations are conducted to share information and find practical solutions for children in crisis situations.

Through these efforts, the city received a commendation for excellence from the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2019, and in the same year received the "Beautiful Challenge Award" at the "4th Proactive Administration Excellence Case Competition" hosted by the Ministry of Personnel Management.

Baek Kun-gi, Yongin City Mayor, said, "We will make efforts to ensure that all children in Yongin grow up healthily in a safe environment regardless of income level and are able to pursue their dreams," and added, "We will further expand partnerships with the local community and establish a systematic child welfare system through more thoughtful policies and programs."