A Flawless System for Identifying and Supporting 'Welfare Crisis Households'... Busan City Takes Initiative to Establish It

Selected for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's 'Eup Myeon Dong Smart Welfare and Safety Service Support Contest'

Location Information-Based... National Participation Welfare Crisis Alert Service for Identifying At-Risk Households

Busan City has had a total of 6 projects from 5 districts selected in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s “2024 Eupmyeondong Smart Welfare and Safety Service Improvement Model Development Support Project” competition.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety conducted the competition from February to March to redefine the role and strengthen the functions of eupmyeondong, which are the frontline welfare and safety service points for residents.

The city achieved a great success with 6 projects selected across three fields: “Welfare + Safety,” “Strengthening Welfare Resource Linkage through Public-Private Cooperation,” and “Anbu Salpim Postal Service.”

Welfare Crisis Alert (Self and Neighbor Crisis Alert).

Following this selection, the city plans to establish a system for discovering local issues and fostering cooperation among various entities including public institutions and the private sector within the region, while focusing more on identifying and supporting vulnerable households and strengthening the local welfare safety net.

As a result of this selection, the city will promote ▲strengthening customized local safety management through the formation and operation of the Dong 365 Safety Council (Nam-gu), ▲establishing a public-private cooperation system to support vulnerable households outside the welfare system (Sasang-gu), and ▲implementing the Anbu Salpim Postal Service (Seo-gu, Dongnae-gu, Haeundae-gu, Sasang-gu).

The Anbu Salpim Postal Service project utilizes postal workers to regularly visit socially isolated households and directly deliver items (such as volume-based waste bags and daily necessities), then share crisis information identified by the postal workers with local governments.

Additionally, a “National Participation Welfare Crisis Alert Service Pilot Project,” which allows neighbors to easily report vulnerable households via a mobile app, will be conducted targeting Busanjin-gu and Buk-gu.

This project enables citizens and related personnel to report vulnerable households through a GIS-based mobile app, linking the reported crisis alert information to the Social Security Information System (Happiness e-um), where verification, counseling, and result input are conducted.

Before nationwide implementation in the second half of this year, Busanjin-gu and Buk-gu have been selected as pilot operation areas to provide public service support and connect private resources through verification and counseling of welfare crisis targets.

During the pilot operation period, the service will be operated only through the crisis alert app’s reporting channel, and from the second half of this year, it will be implemented nationwide through various online and offline channels such as the Bokjiro portal, Naver portal, and CU convenience stores.

Through this, the city plans to complement the limitations of discovering welfare blind spots mainly based on administrative data by detecting on-site crisis signals and identifying high-risk vulnerable households.

Moreover, by linking the newly launched “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Initial Counseling Service” with the existing direct vulnerable household discovery and support, the city expects to significantly reduce the welfare workload burden caused by local government personnel limitations.

The “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Initial Counseling Service” is a project where AI first calls welfare blind spot discovery targets to obtain crisis information through initial counseling, and local government officials then provide in-depth counseling and welfare support to those in need based on the initial counseling information.

The city is operating the AI initial counseling pilot project targeting Suyeong-gu, Buk-gu, and Gijang-gun, and especially in Buk-gu, it is expected to more efficiently identify vulnerable households by conducting both the Welfare Crisis Alert Service Pilot Project and the AI Initial Counseling Pilot Project together.

Pilot Operation of Public Participation Welfare Crisis Alert Service (App) (Anonymous Alert).

Bae Byeong-cheol, Director of the City Social Welfare Bureau, stated, “With this selection and the promotion of pilot projects, we expect to complement the limitations of discovering welfare blind spots by strengthening the welfare safety net more tightly through proactive identification and systematic support of welfare crisis households.” He added, “We will continue to actively respond to new welfare demands and strive to build a solid community protection system tailored to our city’s circumstances.”