Support for Expanding Public Service Activities and Social Participation of Middle-Aged and Older Adults Through Books
On the 23rd, when the monsoon rain continued, citizens are reading books at the Starfield Library in COEX, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The Korea Arts & Culture Education Service (hereinafter Arts Council Korea) is launching support for senior social participation activities through reading.
On the 14th, Arts Council Korea announced that it signed a business agreement to support social participation activities of the 50-plus generation through books, together with the Seoul 50 Plus Foundation and the Reading Society Culture Foundation.
This project is carried out using literary books selected by the Literature Sharing Book Distribution Project operated by Arts Council Korea. It aims to enable the 50-plus generation to design a richer life in the latter half of their lives through books and to participate in social activities that contribute to spreading the value of humanities reading culture within local communities.
First, Arts Council Korea provides the selected books from Literature Sharing, and the Social Culture Foundation supports manpower and program consulting. The 50 Plus Foundation will directly operate three regular educational courses: ▲Introduction to Volunteer Readers by Phone ▲Introduction to Book Curation Literary Books ▲Introduction to Children's Art History Educator, and link them to social contribution activities.
The 'Introduction to Volunteer Readers by Phone' course is designed to train volunteers who read books to seniors over the phone. Graduates of the course will form a 'Volunteer Reading Group by Phone' and engage in volunteer activities.
The 'Introduction to Book Curation Literary Books' program will operate a monitoring group composed of graduates. They will perform monitoring roles on the use of books at each facility receiving selected books from the Arts Council Korea’s Literature Sharing Book Distribution Project.
The 'Introduction to Children's Art History Educator' course, which enhances children's art education guidance capabilities, plans to operate a 'Cultural Nuri Leading Volunteer Group' composed of graduates.
Additionally, volunteer activities targeting Cultural Nuri Card users in the Seoul area will be linked through the Cultural Nuri Card Project operated by Arts Council Korea.
Through the agreement, Arts Council Korea will provide selected books from Literature Sharing and monitoring targets for literary book usage, and support the monitoring group’s case fees and Cultural Nuri Leading activity expenses.
The 50 Plus Foundation will be responsible for education and follow-up program operation by opening three regular educational courses on the Northern Campus. The Social Culture Foundation will transfer know-how based on its experience with the '60+ Year of Books' project conducted last year through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and recommend instructors for the courses.
An official from Arts Council Korea said, "We support the meaningful cooperation of the three organizations so that the second act of life for the 50-plus generation, who hold an important position in our society, unfolds beautifully. Through this, we hope that the literary books selected by the Literature Sharing Book Distribution Project will be widely read and introduced not only to the 50+ generation but to all generations."
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