Gwangju City to Support Mediation for Meetings Between Divorced Parents and Children

Visitation Support Provided at Three Family Centers
Programs Offered Including Psychological Counseling for Children

Gwangju City Hall exterior view.

The city of Gwangju will begin providing full support for the "visitation support service" for minor children in families whose caregiving environment has changed drastically due to divorce or other reasons.

The "visitation support service" is a system designed to help non-custodial parents, who are separated from their children due to divorce or similar circumstances, maintain regular contact with their children through in-person meetings, phone calls, emails, and other forms of ongoing communication.

The city will offer mediation services regarding visitation methods, schedules, locations, and child handover procedures through three designated institutions: Gwangju Dong-gu Family Center, Nam-gu Family Center, and Buk-gu Family Center, all of which serve as "Meet Spring (Visitation) Centers."

Additionally, the city will provide psychological counseling and educational support for minor children, as well as programs to improve parent-child relationships, in order to help children achieve emotional stability, healthy development, and adaptation to their changed environment.

In particular, to enhance the safety and accessibility of visitation, the city plans to utilize local family centers as hubs and focus on creating an environment that fosters trust and bonding, so that voluntary and ongoing meetings can continue until the child reaches adulthood.

On May 14, Lee Youngdong, Director of the Women and Family Bureau, stated, "Visitation is the first step toward restoring broken family relationships," and added, "We will continue to expand various family counseling and support services to help parents and children understand and communicate with each other."

Meanwhile, according to data from Statistics Korea last year, there were a total of 2,258 divorce cases in the Gwangju area, accounting for approximately 2.47% of the nationwide total of 91,151 cases. The number of minor children eligible for these services due to divorce is estimated at 1,129.