Hoengseong-gun has established and implemented various policies such as improving the residential environment for older persons, promoting transportation convenience, expanding leisure and cultural facilities, expanding jobs for older persons, and enacted the “Hoengseong-gun Ordinance on the Creation of an Age-Friendly City” to create an Age-Friendly City.

In addition, Hoengseong-gun intends to form a monitoring group in the process of establishing an action plan for an age-friendly city to provide opportunities for citizen participation and collect opinions from citizens. The monitoring group will consist of various age groups from people in their 20s to 60s and older, and each team member will provide opinions and ideas to make Hoengseong-gun a more age-friendly city.

Hoengseong-gun conducted focus group interviews with older persons in the process of creating an age-friendly city. Focus group participants were sampled in consideration of gender and age, and age and region were selected so as not to overlap as much as possible in the sample selection process. Through the focus groups, Hoengseong-gun’s living conditions, age-friendly degrees, regional gaps, and satisfaction with current age-friendly policies were identified.

In addition, a survey was conducted on the current environment of Hoengseong-gun and the actual conditions and needs of each area of the city. The development of survey questions was revised and supplemented to suit the reality of Hoengseong-gun, focusing on the WHO’s checklist. The survey items included questions on health and care, jobs, and leisure activities, as well as the WHO’s eight age-friendly domains.

Using data from the focus groups and survey, Hoengseong-gun will create a more complete and age-friendly urban environment.