Nowon-gu Wins Grand Prize in UNICEF Child-Friendly City Best Practices Contest

Participation in Contest Hosted by Child Rights Promotion Organization ‘UNICEF Korea Committee’... Recognized for Contribution to Realizing Various Rights Including Children’s Participation and Play Rights... Continuing Child Rights Protection Projects for a Happy Nowon Where All Are Happy

Nowon-gu, Seoul (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced on the 14th that it won the grand prize in the 'UNICEF Child-Friendly Cities (hereinafter CFC) Best Practices Contest,' co-hosted by the UNICEF Korea Committee and the UNICEF Child-Friendly Cities Local Government Council.

This best practices contest was organized to discover and share cases of local governments that have brought about positive changes for children, marking the 10th anniversary of the domestic child-friendly city creation project, and to encourage their efforts.

The district solidified its status as a child-friendly city once again by receiving the grand prize in this contest, recognizing the achievements of the 'Nowon-gu Children and Youth I am also an Architect' project, which has been promoted since 2019.

The 'I am also an Architect Project' is a program where children and youth who have completed public architecture education participate from the design stage of actual buildings to create child-friendly spaces. This allows for designs that consider the growth and development of children and youth, increasing the utilization of facilities, and monitoring and post-evaluation through space usage are conducted in parallel, contributing to the realization of children and youth’s right to participate.

In particular, the district received excellent evaluations for a total of 10 cases reflected in the ▲Hagye Eoullim I-Hyu Center and ▲Children’s Library in 2021.

These cases are the results of active implementation of proposals from children and youth, the actual users of the spaces. To ensure that the suggestions from children and youth who participated in the design did not remain mere ideas, the district conducted three-dimensional modeling work during the educational process.

The participants proposed a physical activity space (indoor climbing wall, cloud ladder) on one side of the I-Hyu Center, aiming to create a balanced space for rest and learning. In the library, which is gaining attention as a new complex cultural space, a wooden 'louver ceiling' was installed to enhance the sense of openness for healing functions, and pocket spaces were installed on walls and bookshelves to increase the utilization of idle spaces.

Students who participated in the process expressed their impressions in a satisfaction survey conducted after the project ended, saying, "I learned what architects do and how they create design plans," "It was hard to cut and paste directly, but it was good to make models of what I thought," and "It was fun to experience it myself, and I felt like I became an architect."

After receiving the first child-friendly city certification in 2018, the district consecutively obtained higher-level certifications in 2022. As a child-friendly city, Nowon-gu implements systems such as the ‘Children and Youth Council,’ ‘Participation Committee,’ and ‘Child Participation Budget’ to guarantee the rights of children and youth and reflect their voices in policies. By providing channels where policies can be directly proposed and monitored, it realizes children’s right to participate and helps cultivate the capabilities of democratic citizens.

Additionally, the district holds an annual ‘Youth Festival’ to guarantee children and youth’s right to play, creates ‘Youth Hangouts’ to support their leisure activities, and continuously works to establish a community safety net including the ‘I-Hyu Center,’ ‘Sick Child Care Center,’ and ‘Shelter for Abused Children.’

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “Winning the grand prize in this contest is the result of promoting various projects with the belief that a happy Nowon for children is a happy Nowon for everyone,” and added, “We will continue to strive to make Nowon a child-friendly city where children’s rights are fully realized.”