Songpa-gu Wins Prime Minister's Award at the 2024 Safety Culture Awards

The 8th Elected Administration's Efforts for a '24-Hour Safe City' Bear Fruit... Praised in ▲Education ▲Public-Private Cooperation ▲Training
Songpa-gu Honored with Prime Minister's Award → Secures 150 Million KRW Special Grant from Ministry of the Interior and Safety

Songpa-gu (Mayor Seo Gang-seok) announced that it received the Prime Minister's Award at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s ‘2024 Safety Culture Awards’ and secured a special grant of 150 million KRW.

The ‘2024 Safety Culture Awards’ are given by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to individuals or organizations that have contributed to spreading a safety culture across various sectors of society. This year, only three local governments nationwide, including Songpa-gu, received government awards, making it even more valuable.

The district was recognized for its efforts to ensure residents' safety by promoting a ‘24-hour safe city’ as a core goal of the 8th elected administration, implementing ▲ customized safety education ▲ public-private cooperative safety culture campaigns ▲ training and inspections for disaster and emergency response.

Above all, the diverse customized safety education programs received high praise. Focusing first on children, since 2017, Songpa-gu has produced and distributed the ‘Children’s Safety Diary’ and held the ‘Visiting Children’s Safety Experience Camp’ at 20 elementary schools in the district this year, receiving enthusiastic responses.

In addition, for vulnerable groups such as seniors, people with disabilities, and multicultural families, the district conducted ‘visiting safety education’ and carried out a facility maintenance project targeting 1,000 households. It also operated various experiential programs at the Songpa Safety Experience Education Center, Korea’s first comprehensive safety experience education facility, making broad efforts to raise safety awareness.

Various public-private cooperative activities to spread safety culture also stood out. In particular, the district worked hard to create a foundation for active activities by safety-related private organizations such as the Crime Prevention Council, Volunteer Crime Prevention Unit, and Volunteer Fire Brigade. It closely cooperated through ordinance enactment and revision, various meetings with related agencies, and signing of memorandums of understanding.

Furthermore, the successful implementation of the Safety Korea Training held last October at Korea National Sport University drew attention. The large-scale training involving over 500 participants not only strengthened collaboration with related agencies but also received praise for selecting the timely theme of ‘Electric Vehicle and Electric Kickboard Fires.’

Especially, with this award, the district secured a financial incentive of 150 million KRW from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The special grant provided will be used as revenue resources to cover unexpected future financial demands of the district.

Seo Gang-seok, Mayor of Songpa-gu, stated, “This award is the result of the joint efforts of Songpa-gu public officials and all 660,000 residents to raise safety awareness,” adding, “We will continue to work tirelessly to create a safe urban environment where residents can feel secure 24 hours a day and serve the community.”