Creating Employment for the Jobless, Planting Dreams of Self-Reliance for Vulnerable Groups

Suwon City has established its policy goals for this year as revitalizing the regional economy and addressing livelihood stability for ordinary citizens. This is a time when the importance of various welfare policies supporting ordinary citizens and marginalized groups amid continuing economic crisis is being emphasized.

To this end, the city plans to implement diverse welfare policies for households and various groups, including "sharing" and "support in times of crisis."

The heavier the difficult times, the greater the burden on the Department of Residential Life Support, which handles welfare affairs. This newspaper has gathered information on various welfare policies currently being implemented by the Department of Residential Life Support, which handles welfare in multiple sectors including employment, the elderly, people with disabilities, women, multicultural families, and children. <Editor's Note>

● Yu Wan-sik, Director of the Department of Residential Life Support: "Full Effort Toward Job Creation and Resolving Social Polarization"

In response to the global economic crisis that began with the 2008 U.S. financial crisis, the Department of Residential Life Support will make job creation and resolving social polarization, our economy's top priorities this year, the top agenda and work with full force.

For the youth demographic, we will promote the "Youth Employment Success Project" and youth internship programs to provide employment support for 200 young job seekers and offer job experience opportunities to 50 university graduates.

We will also support employment for those in their 40s and 50s through reemployment support projects, public work projects, and employment information center operations to address household economic problems and unemployment.

For senior job creation, we are providing 1,500 senior jobs through 50 projects with a budget of 2 billion won, and supporting 60 million won across 5 sectors including full-time homemaker reemployment and homemaker internship programs. From April, we also plan to operate customized employment support projects for married immigrants.

To resolve social polarization by supporting vulnerable groups, we will provide jeonse (lease deposit) funds at low interest rates of 2% to non-homeowning households with monthly incomes at or below 200% of the minimum living expenses. We are also supporting housing stability by providing purchased housing rental and jeonse rental support for recipients of basic living allowances, single-parent families, and children headed by minors.

We are also providing "customized one-stop services" linking the private sector, government, industry, and academia for groups in blind spots of public support.

In addition, we plan to implement unlimited care projects for families in crisis, social reintegration of the homeless, self-reliance foundation construction for low-income groups, and childcare support for 1,829 at-risk children.

In particular, we plan to expand 130 long-term care facilities for the elderly and complete the building of long-term care insurance business infrastructure with the opening of the Suwon In-home Support Center.

We are also promoting 2.6 billion won for severe disability activity support projects and 590 million won in support for 248 disabled children.

We will also provide free childcare facility fees for low-income children and plan to expand the service target range from July onward by creating additional We-Start villages in Seryou 2-dong following Uman-dong.

The Department of Residential Life Support will do its best to provide "employment for the jobless" and "dreams of self-reliance for vulnerable groups."

● Oh Gwang-rok, Director of the Residential Life Support Division: "Employment Support to Overcome Unemployment, Expansion of Community Social Investment"

The Residential Life Support Division plans to focus this year on strengthening employment support measures, expanding public work projects, supporting housing welfare for vulnerable groups, and expanding social service investment projects.

For employment support for youth struggling with job placement due to the worldwide recession, we will implement Suwon City's special policy, the "Youth Employment Success Project," along with entrusted specialist job training, youth new deal, customized workforce training through industry-academic cooperation, youth internship, and workplace experience programs. The Youth Employment Success Project aims to increase employment success rates by providing necessary competency training and customized employment support consultation for job placement.

We plan to add employment information centers, currently operating at two locations—the City Hall Information Desk and the Paldal Gate Customer Support Center—to the Suwon Regional Industrial Complex in Gosaeok-dong, Gwonseon-gu. We also plan to operate public work projects in four stages through the end of this year to stabilize ordinary citizens' livelihoods and conduct various employment support projects including job fairs.

We will provide jeonse fund loans to households with householders aged 20 or older without homes and with incomes at or below 200% of the minimum living expenses, and plan to provide interest-free jeonse funds to children headed by minors, families with injured traffic accident victims, and foster children.

We will also implement low-income housing welfare projects, including existing housing jeonse and purchased housing rental support for recipients of basic living allowances, near-poor populations, and single-parent families.

To existing five regional community service projects that have been implemented as government-subsidized projects, such as child cognitive ability development services, we will expand by adding area-development-type projects such as child emotional development support services and massage services for visually impaired individuals, implementing preventive welfare measures.

● Lee Seong-nak, Director of the Social Welfare Division: "Realizing Shared Welfare Through Support for Low-Income, Homeless, and At-Risk Children"

For welfare administration that local residents can relate to and participate in, we will enhance service quality and ensure substantive outcomes in the operation of approximately 70 social welfare facilities including social welfare centers, self-reliance centers, homeless shelters, and child welfare facilities.

To realize shared welfare, we will not only activate the "Food Bank" but also operate a "Food Market" project to provide necessary living supplies to low-income groups this year.

Currently, Suwon City's low-income recipients of basic living allowances total 15,477 basic living allowance recipients (8,926 households), 144 emergency support beneficiaries, 251 families in crisis receiving unlimited care, and 4,970 medical care allowance recipients (2,580 households), totaling 11,901 households with 20,842 people, comprising 1.9% of the city's total population.

Therefore, while working to ensure livelihood stability for existing basic living allowance recipients, given the recent increase in families in crisis due to deteriorating economic conditions, we will implement the emergency support projects and unlimited care projects for families in crisis promoted by the government and Gyeonggi Province without interruption.

To strengthen homeless protection, we plan to provide shelter (5 locations) and counseling centers (1 location) with lodging, meals, medical support, and self-reliance projects to protect the homeless, while conducting field visitation counseling and nighttime guidance activities.

We plan to invest 5.4 billion won this year to strengthen support for low-income group self-reliance and livelihood stability. We will also ensure substantive operations at the three self-reliance centers to support the development of self-reliance capabilities and skills acquisition and provide work opportunities.

For the healthy upbringing of "at-risk children," we will systematically and efficiently support child care so that children headed by minors and low-income children can grow healthily, based on child-rearing facilities (4 locations), group homes (6 locations), and community child centers (study rooms, 41 locations).

● Lee Seong-gyu, Director of the Division for the Elderly and Disabled: "Opening of Senior In-Home Care Center, Continued Activity Support for Severe Disabled Individuals"

Since 2005, we have successfully implemented a pilot long-term care insurance project for the elderly, expanding 130 care facilities, significantly more than other cities and counties. This year, with the opening of the "Suwon In-Home Support Center," which can coordinate and support all care facilities, will be a year in which we complete the infrastructure for long-term care insurance projects.

With the center's opening, we will flawlessly implement long-term care insurance projects and continuously promote senior caregiver projects for elderly people unable to use facilities, thereby reducing the burden on elderly-caring families and working to alleviate anxiety about aging through stable service provision.

Additionally, three senior welfare centers, including the Beodnae Senior Welfare Center, are operating various programs in leisure, health, and welfare. This year, we plan to build the SK Cheongsol Senior Welfare Center by investing 11.2 billion won to construct a building with basement 1 floor and 3 stories above ground, totaling 3,687 square meters in area within Manseok Park.

To help seniors find purpose in work, we plan to have 11 institutions, including Senior Clubs and Silver Human Resources Banks, contribute to social development based on seniors' diverse experiences. To support this, we have secured a budget of 2 billion won to provide 1,500 senior jobs across approximately 50 projects and will continue to create more jobs suited to seniors' aptitudes and abilities.

We will also continue to implement basic old-age pensions, caregiver services for approximately 1,400 elderly living alone, free meal services, and meal delivery services for low-income homebound seniors.

In the disability welfare sector, we will promote the project "The Most Precious Work in the World: Disability Experience, Continuing the Ramp of Love," and we will expand and improve accessible facilities for disabled individuals.

We will provide living stability allowances, including disability allowances and medical expenses, to low-income disabled individuals and will concurrently implement disability job projects.

Additionally, we plan to implement childbirth congratulation support projects for women with disabilities who are excluded from social activities and education due to double discrimination based on "gender" and "disability."

Along with this, we will make efforts for social participation and rehabilitation through disabled youth vacation camps, day train trips with intellectual disabled individuals and their families, training sessions, disability badminton competitions, parent workshops for disabled individuals, and the Suwon Women with Disabilities Choir.

In particular, we have prepared mobile bathing vehicle operations, free dental treatment, and rehabilitation leisure programs for severely disabled individuals.

Above all, we will secure 2.6 billion won this year as activity support project funds for severely disabled individuals to support their independence and will improve self-reliance capabilities through vocational rehabilitation. Through the "rehabilitation therapy voucher project" for functional improvement and behavioral development of disabled children in their growth phase, we plan to support 248 children with 590 million won to reduce the economic burden on low-income families with disabled children.

● Yoon Myeong-won, Director of the Family and Women's Division: "Expansion of Free Childcare Project, Additional Operation of We-Start Village in Seryou 2-dong"

We will operate women leader universities, women college student leadership camps, and women civil servants' leadership enhancement programs to efficiently utilize female human resources.

For full-time homemaker reemployment projects, we will support 60 million won across 5 sectors, including computerized accounting education, and through employment counseling and employment design specialists, we will provide one-stop connections between job-seeking employers and women seeking employment. We plan to operate the "housewife internship program" targeting women who have not engaged in economic activities for extended periods.

We will prepare the "Third Family Culture Festival" held in June together with women-related organizations and NGOs, and will implement preventive education and continuing education for counselors to prevent domestic violence and sexual violence and protect victims.

We will activate the "Women CEO Management Academy," "Women's Craft Competition," and "Women's Human Resources Development Center," and plan to hold the "Women Leaders Workshop" and "Suwon Women's United Sports Day."

In addition, we will strengthen the functions of the Healthy Family Support Center to expand childcare support services and work to create healthy family culture through multicultural family cultural experiences, family-love nature experiences, couple love training sessions, low-income family training sessions, and North Korean defector families' cultural family experiences.

To support low-income single-parent families, we will provide welfare fund loans, job skill training, and "childcare helper" support services, and will operate the "Love for Single Mothers School" to link it with sponsorship projects by local women CEOs.

We plan to provide social integration support services for married immigrant families' adaptation to Korean society, home-visit education services for Korean language and child-rearing, job skill training, and childcare services for unemployed multicultural families. We will also operate seasonal cultural classes for married immigrant women on topics including cuisine, traditional etiquette, and Suwon's history.

We will comprehensively evaluate the operational status of private childcare facilities in the Suwon area and provide incentives such as environmental improvement and teaching materials and instructional equipment purchases to excellent facilities. From July, we plan to expand the free childcare service target and provide childcare subsidies.

In particular, we will develop the "Happy Together" movement to create opportunities for mutual service through meetings between daycare centers and senior centers, offering seniors children's talent performances and providing children with engaging stories and other benefits.

Most importantly, we plan to additionally establish and expand the "We-Start Village" in Seryou 2-dong, which Suwon City has been operating in Uman-dong, Paldal-gu, to provide low-income children with latent ability development, education, and medical welfare services.

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