Seven organizations form social-contribution mega-governance framework
The Korea Land and Housing Corporation said Thursday it has been expanding support for youth aging out of the care system — known as "self-reliance-ready youth" — beyond housing and financial assistance to include lifestyle and emotional care.
To help these young people achieve stable independence, LH operates a range of programs in addition to providing rental housing: housing subscription account payment support, rental deposit assistance, move-in grants and an energy cost support project. LH has also unified its service channels through the "Youstart" residential and lifestyle support platform and runs a dedicated call center for self-reliance-ready youth and homeless youth, maintaining a comprehensive support network with no gaps.
On top of that, LH is advancing the "On: Youth" project to significantly broaden its scope — adding emotional care and household goods provision to its existing housing and financial support — in order to improve real-world effectiveness.
The "On: Youth" project is a social-contribution mega-governance initiative through which LH and partner institutions and companies pool their expertise and resources for self-reliance-ready youth. It aims to provide tailored, comprehensive care covering emotional stability, social network building and self-reliance capacity. Seven organizations are involved: LH, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, Yuhan-Kimberly, Daiso, Naver Happy Bean and World Vision.
As part of the initiative, LH will deliver "welfare boxes" to 300 self-reliance-ready youth each month for three months starting this month. Each box contains practical household items and an encouraging message.
LH will also run a two-day, one-night camp for 100 self-reliance-ready youth at the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation's Jinju Sports Value Center from Oct. 24 to Oct. 25. The camp will feature sports and leisure activities along with special lectures on housing and career planning to support participants' emotional stability and self-reliance skills.
LH said it plans to step up outreach on support programs available through child welfare facilities so that the transition out of care and into housing assistance can proceed smoothly. Applications for housing support can be submitted before a resident leaves a child welfare facility.
LH has also been continuously expanding support for homeless youth alongside self-reliance-ready youth. The corporation has eased housing support eligibility requirements for homeless youth to match those for self-reliance-ready youth, newly included them in its lifestyle support project and enabled them to apply for various programs through the Youstart platform, just as self-reliance-ready youth can.
"We are strengthening cooperation with various institutions and companies to broaden our support beyond housing and financial assistance to include emotional care," an LH official said. "We will back the stable settlement of self-reliance-ready youth and their fresh start toward their dreams."
Meanwhile, LH said it will tighten quality management — from pre-completion inspections to post-move-in repairs — to reduce serious defects in apartment complexes and resolve residents' complaints more quickly.
hss@heraldcorp.com
