Pocheon City to Open "Greater Happiness Pocheon City Family Center" on the 26th
From Single-Person Households to Families with Migrant Backgrounds...
"A Warm, Inclusive Space Without Boundaries"
Directly Operated by Pocheon City, Establishing Itself as a Customized Welfare Hub for All Life Stages
The "Greater Happiness Pocheon City Family Center" (headed by Director and Head of Family and Women’s Affairs Choi Sunhee), operated by Pocheon City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Baek Younghyeon), has established itself as a citizen-centered welfare hub that embraces various family structures.
According to Pocheon City on November 13, the family center, which is set to officially open on November 26, is already providing customized family services tailored to the diverse types of families residing in Pocheon and their needs at each stage of life.
A Warm, Inclusive Space: Customized Services for All Families
Pocheon City is building a welfare foundation where all citizens, regardless of family type-such as families with multiple children, single-parent families, grandparent-grandchild families, single-person households, and families with migrant backgrounds-can grow together. The city has established a universal and comprehensive family support system that covers family relationships, caregiving, daily family life, and building a community together with families.
The Greater Happiness Pocheon City Family Center operates counseling and programs not only on weekday evenings and weekends but also during off-peak hours, supporting the balance between work and family life. In addition, the center is expanding its outreach family services to provide customized support for distant towns and specific groups. By collaborating with the Bandabi Sports Center and expanding parking facilities, the center has greatly improved accessibility, allowing all citizens to visit comfortably.
Within the center, the professional family counseling room "Ma-eum Sup" is equipped with individual and group counseling spaces. In addition to one-on-one counseling, the center has run a variety of group counseling programs for parents of adolescents, parents of infants and toddlers, grandparents caring for grandchildren, and couples seeking conflict resolution. Additional group counseling programs for family caregivers and seniors who have lost spouses are also planned.
Greater Happiness Pocheon City Family Center (Community Childcare Sharing Center). Provided by Pocheon City
Integrated Spaces by Function: A Hub for Counseling, Education, Care, and Communication
The center has created a variety of spaces that encompass counseling, education, care, and communication, forming an open, community-based welfare space accessible to all citizens.
In particular, the Community Childcare Sharing Center is a space where parents and other caregivers can gather to share information and practice joint childcare, strengthening family functions. It operates a range of ongoing programs for infants, young children, and their parents. Notable programs include "Joyful Orff Sensory Play," "Acorn Catching Mosquitoes!," "Making Straw Hats," "Making Doorbells with Mom!," and "Our Home in Bloom." The center also plans to continue regular programs such as "Playing Dad, Smiling Child," which fosters bonding between male caregivers and their children.
In October, the "Dream Camping for Families with Multiple Children" event, which recruited 130 participants from 28 families, received an enthusiastic response, filling up within a minute of opening for applications. The event featured family participation programs such as making camping nameplates and a camping cooking challenge, as well as cultural programs like the Hantan River Garden Festa and the World Drone Festival.
Programs to strengthen emotional bonds between couples and support various forms of marital roles are also being promoted. Beginning with a couples’ sports event (a couples’ bowling tournament) held on November 8, the center is running practical, customized programs such as prenatal and postnatal care education-including massage for expectant couples-and group counseling based on temperament assessments.
Support projects for single-person households are also active.
Greater Happiness Pocheon City Family Center (Single-Person Household Program - HomeFit). Provided by Pocheon City
Reflecting the characteristics of each stage of life, the center operates a variety of health management support programs for young people, such as "Challenge! Climbing," "Homefit Challenge," "Personal Color Diagnosis and Body Type Analysis," and the slow-aging cooking class "Healthy Me." For seniors, there is the "Strong Steps Project," a gait correction program that measures feet, posture, and walking. In addition, the center provides practical services such as useful information for independent living and "small-scale moving vehicle support," contributing to both emotional stability and tangible support for single-person households, thereby improving their quality of life.
Robust Support for Families with Migrant Backgrounds
The center is also strengthening its support for families with migrant backgrounds.
To help marriage immigrants adapt to life in Korea, improve family communication, and expand participation in the local community, the center operates practical programs that combine language education and cultural experiences. Korean language education is systematized from basic to intermediate levels, focusing on practical Korean needed for daily life.
In addition, the center offers step-by-step settlement support package programs that include Korean cuisine classes and life information education, as well as foundational learning support in Korean and math, emotional and psychological support for children from migrant backgrounds, and integration camps for elementary, middle, and high school students from such families.
Collaboration with local related organizations is also active.
In October, the center worked with Event Farm Village Making Association to run the "Taste of Fermentation, Together with Us" program for migrant-background youth, offering hands-on experiences in making traditional Korean fermented foods. The center also collaborated with the Pocheon Office of Education to organize multicultural family camping events.
Furthermore, the center is closely cooperating with the Seonhan Multicultural Family Support Center and the Pocheon Harang Center to continuously develop programs for multicultural families. As a result of these efforts, requests for cooperation from various local organizations are steadily increasing, and the network of linked support for marriage immigrants and multicultural families is gradually expanding.
Baek Younghyeon, Mayor of Pocheon City, stated, "Through the Greater Happiness Pocheon City Family Center, we are meticulously providing customized services to diverse families," adding, "We will continue to promote family welfare centered on our citizens."
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