Seoul Youth Activity Support Center Relocates to Yongsan Youth Housing with 10-Fold Expansion... Transforms into Youth Complex Town

Eunpyeong-gu Innovation Park Relocates to Accessible Yongsan-gu Youth Housing... Opening on the 19th

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 17th that it will relocate and expand the ‘Seoul Youth Activity Support Center,’ which was operated at Eunpyeong-gu Innovation Park, to a space within youth housing located in Yongsan-gu.

The Seoul Youth Activity Support Center, which will open anew on the 19th, has increased its size more than tenfold (total floor area of 2,281㎡) and significantly expanded its operational content. While it previously operated mainly as office space and supported youth projects through online platforms and external facility rentals, it will now provide one-stop services that meet strong youth needs, including economic and psychological support for youths in crisis, job search assistance, and future career planning within its own facilities. The center’s location, just a 3-minute walk from Namyeong Station on Line 1, also improves accessibility.

The Seoul Youth Activity Support Center serves as a control tower for 12 Seoul Youth Centers across the city as well as youth spaces operated at the regional level. With this expansion and relocation to a downtown area, it is expected that a wider range of youths from various regions will be able to visit easily and actively use the center on a daily basis, including those living in youth housing and nearby areas.

The activity support center space includes a dedicated counseling room for mental health and Seoul Young Tech, a high-quality multi-purpose ‘comprehensive counseling room,’ a ‘video interview room’ equipped with laptops and webcams for interviews, a ‘youth studio’ for broadcasting and video shooting, large and small meeting rooms, and a multipurpose room.

Within these newly established spaces, programs such as youth vitality fairs, orientation sessions supporting youth allowance participants, one-on-one mental counseling, group counseling, online counseling services, self-understanding-based career planning programs, and the Young Carer Caring project to identify and support youths struggling with family caregiving and care responsibilities will be operated. All spaces are also available for rental.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is also planning to collaborate with Seoul Youth Centers to directly plan and provide cultural and artistic events, as well as lifestyle sports activities for youths at the activity support center.

Meanwhile, on the 19th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will hold an opening ceremony for the activity support center attended by about 50 local youths and related parties. Following the introduction of the center’s projects and the opening declaration, there will be congratulatory performances by local youths. After the opening ceremony, the Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to operate the activity support center on a trial basis until the end of this year to address any necessary improvements and will begin full-scale operation from next year.

Kim Cheol-hee, head of the Seoul Future Youth Planning Group, said, “The newly opened activity support center in the heart of Seoul is equipped with a larger and better space befitting the status of Seoul as a global city, providing infrastructure that can respond quickly and precisely to the diverse needs of youths.” He added, “We will continuously monitor youth usage and satisfaction and make every effort to manage operational content so that it can become a standard model for youth spaces spreading nationwide.”