Solutions for Welfare Blind Spots in Nowon-gu?... Launch of the 'Nowon Ddokddokddok Care Team'

4512 Care-Needed Households Selected in Two Stages Among Unlinked Care Targets and Single-Parent Families... Care Team Composed of 200 Local Residents Familiar with Neighborhood Conditions

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Nowon-gu (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) operates the ‘Nowon Ddok Ddok Ddok Care Team’ to actively identify residents in need of care and attention and to provide continuous and regular care services.

Even with advanced smart technology and comprehensive welfare systems, they are meaningless if the target individuals cannot or do not use them.

The solution is attention. The Nowon Ddok Ddok Ddok Care Team means ‘knocking on the door of closed hearts,’ and its main role is to discover welfare blind spots and continuously check on the well-being of the target individuals through home visits and phone calls.

The care recipients were selected through a two-step process, with a final total of 4,512 people. To avoid duplication, the group includes ▲3,752 single-person households among the elderly, disabled, and middle-aged in the national basic livelihood security and near-poverty classes who have not received care from the district office or others, and ▲760 single-parent households experiencing disabilities, illnesses, or difficulties in child-rearing.

The care team members are not simple volunteers. To support responsibility and continuous activity, 200 members were publicly recruited. They receive activity allowances, accident insurance, care team ID cards, and uniforms.

The care team is assigned 4 to 14 members per neighborhood according to local care demand, working up to 4 hours a day, 3 days a week, contributing to social participation and job creation for the middle-aged.

After receiving basic training on COVID-19 prevention guidelines and visit safety at each neighborhood community center, they will begin full-scale activities starting in February.

Meanwhile, in 2019, the district established the shared welfare platform website ‘Nowon Bokji Saem,’ which gathers scattered public and private welfare resource information in one place. Before that, users had to access each institution separately to obtain private welfare resource information.

Nowon Bokji Saem allows users to view at a glance all 192 private social welfare institutions in Nowon-gu and all welfare services provided by the district, receiving high praise and playing a significant role in selecting care recipients this time.

Mayor Oh Seung-rok said, “Good welfare service resources shine when they meet the welfare recipients who need them,” adding, “We will establish a meticulous Nowon care system that does not miss a single person and finds even one more person in need.”