Suwon's Youngtong-gu Pursues First National Initiative to Revitalize Dong-Level Professional Associations

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Suwon's Youngtong-gu announced on the 9th that it has conducted research for the first time in the nation to explore measures for revitalizing dong-level professional associations in the coronavirus era.

This research initiative stemmed from the recognition that since the outbreak of COVID-19, in-person activities have been restricted due to social distancing, leading to a decline in dong-level professional association activities and a weakening of community spirit.

From April to June, over a three-month period, the Suwon Research Institute for City Policy, Youngtong-gu Office, and five dong-level professional associations participated in comparative analysis of dong-level professional association activities before and after the coronavirus era through case studies and focus group interviews (FGI), and presented improvement measures based on identified problems.

According to the research results, due to COVID-19, the ratio of meetings held by the five associations decreased by 42.3% in 2020 compared to 2019, and the number of participants also decreased by 29.3%.

The research proposed the following measures to revitalize dong-level professional associations: ▶Presentation of in-person activity guidelines to strengthen solidarity and sense of belonging among members, activation of small-scale gatherings ▶Activation of online meetings for concurrent online and offline activities, homepage redesign, implementation of concurrent online and offline general assemblies ▶Provision of various incentives to encourage members' active participation and implementation of capacity-building education ▶Development of new projects and exploration of functional transformation in response to changing environments.

Youngtong-gu plans to reflect the results of this research in future district administration and actively utilize them to revitalize the stagnant dong-level professional associations.

Meanwhile, Kim Yong-deok, head of Youngtong-gu Office, stated, "Dong-level professional associations play a pivotal role in implementing on-site administration. We will make active efforts to ensure that dong-level professional association activities, which have stagnated due to COVID-19, regain their vitality by utilizing the results of this research."