2018 International Field Experience:
Human and Social Services in Seoul

Jun 23, 2018 From June 18-23rd in 2018, Seoul Welfare Foundation hosted “2018 International Field Experience: Human and Social Services in Seoul”. This program was co-organized by Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, and Nihon Fukushi University in Nagoya, Japan.

Twenty-two students from the United States, Japan and Korea participated the five-day program to have understanding of Seoul city’s human and social service strategies and policies which led Seoul as one of top 10 globally competitive cities. Students learned the motivation and implementation of the policies by meeting policy makers from the government and works of different institutes and NPOs.

During the program, the students have attended eight briefings on welfare, poverty, homelessness, population, visiting community center, health, multicultural families, and Seoul Foundation of Women and Family, and visited six different NPOs. Through the sessions and visits, the students from each countries had chances to compare and examine the leadership and administration in the implementation of human and social services in Seoul. In addition, they had exchanged their own knowledge and experiences through the programs.

This program has been a great opportunity to learn about Seoul metropolitan governments human and social services for students from three countries.

Building a Comprehensive Care System for the Community

May 25, 2018 On May 25th in 2018, Seoul Welfare Foundation hosted the fourth Korea-Japan Comparative forum titled “Building a Comprehensive Care System for the Community” . The form took place at St. Francisco Education Hall, Seoul in partnership with Nihon Fukushi University in Nagoya, Japan.

Seoul Welfare Foundation have exchanged and cooperated with Nihon Fukushi University since 2013 for social welfare researches. Every year SWF and NFU have been sharing their studies and thought through mutual visiting forums and study sessions. “Building a community care system” has been a hot issue for social workers and policy makers in Korea due to aging issues that Korean society facing. Japan experiencing aging society earlier than Korea has developed a care system for their community members in each regions. In the forum, SWF and NFU shared each countries’ experiences on the care system building in community level. For the reason, the forum was full of audiences whose passion was on to learn of the community care system of Japan as a good model. There were about 200 people participating the forum.

Hirano Takayuki, professor at NFU presented a broad picture of Japan’s care system by showing historical and legal background of the community based care system and current trends in Japan. Teramoto Shinji, the former director of welfare department and Hosoi Hiromi, the head of health department in Ashiya city both presented Ashiya city’s case which shows how to build the valid system for the community care by the cooperation of related departments in the city government. Myungseok Ryu, the director of Research and evaluation bureau from SWF spoke of the direction of comprehensive care system in Seoul and the meaning of the policy.