Discovering Reclusive Youth Through Various Channels Including Resident Autonomy Committees, Families, and Counseling Centers
Providing Step-by-Step Customized Support by Type Such as Counseling, Food Ingredient Assistance, and Work Experience Opportunities
Gangbuk-gu, Seoul (Mayor Lee Soon-hee) announced on the 19th that it will establish a one-stop support management system that provides step-by-step customized support from discovering and counseling isolated and reclusive youth to their social advancement, and will actively promote the isolated and reclusive youth support project this year.
These days, due to employment difficulties and job-seeking abandonment, the population of isolated and reclusive youth continues to increase. It is estimated to be about 3,500 in Gangbuk-gu as well. This is why social attention is needed.
Gangbuk-gu has established a Gangbuk-type policy support model that empowers youth by enacting ordinances and signing business agreements with related organizations and institutions centered on the Seoul Youth Center Gangbuk, aiming to create a public policy support model from actively discovering isolated and reclusive youth through building a community cooperation network to their social advancement.
In April last year, the district enacted the "Ordinance on Support for Reclusive Youth in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul" to provide a basis for supporting isolated and reclusive youth. In August last year, Gangbuk Public Health Center and Seoul Youth Center Gangbuk signed a "Mental Health Management System Establishment Business Agreement" and supported a total of 34 people through 8 sessions of early detection and counseling intervention for mental illnesses targeting isolated and reclusive youth.
Then, in October last year, Gangbuk Public Health Center and the preliminary social enterprise Anmuseowoon Company signed a "Mental Health Management System Establishment Business Agreement" and have been conducting early detection and treatment of high-risk groups among isolated and reclusive youth.
Also, in March, Seoul Youth Center Gangbuk signed a "Vulnerable Youth Discovery and Social Network Building Business Agreement" with the Care and Support Group of the Residents' Autonomous Committee of Suyu 3-dong, the area with the highest number of single-person youth households.
When reclusive youth discovered through various channels such as residents of the Residents' Autonomous Committee, families, and counseling institutions are connected to the "Seoul Youth Center Gangbuk" (Center Director Kwon Hye-jin), the center selects support candidates through counseling sheets and questionnaires, then conducts a thorough isolated and reclusive youth support project from initial counseling to in-depth counseling, psychological counseling, delivery of care kits, social network formation programs, home repair projects, and employment and start-up support.
If in-depth counseling is needed after the initial counseling, one-on-one close counseling is provided by the Eun-dun Master Community, composed of counselors experienced in isolation and reclusion. In addition, cooperation with related counseling institutions such as Youth Counseling Welfare Center, Family (Single-Person Household Support) Center, Mental Health Welfare Center, and Housing Welfare Center enables transitional counseling according to life cycle stages.
The district provides various supports after counseling, building a network among local community counseling institutions such as Seoul Youth Center Gangbuk, Gangbuk Youth Counseling Welfare Center, and Mental Health Welfare Center, and cooperates in supporting isolated and reclusive youth. This is to closely discover and connect support for socially isolated youth in our society.
Through the voluntary participation of the Baeknyeon Market Merchants' Association (19 stores), a traditional market, the district encourages healthy eating habits by delivering seasonal ingredients to communal living spaces of isolated and reclusive youth.
Also, the district is conducting the CJ Sharing Refrigerator Campaign project, which provides food ingredients to vulnerable youth in terms of diet and single-person household youth, through a business agreement with CJ CheilJedang.
On the 20th, the district plans to operate a special lecture by experts related to isolation and reclusion and run work experience programs for socially advancing isolated and reclusive youth in recovery, such as activities as local event staff in Gangbuk-gu.
Lee Soon-hee, Mayor of Gangbuk-gu, said, "The district will continue to operate various programs that practically help the lives of isolated and reclusive youth," and added, "We will strive so that youth can recover their daily lives and actively participate as healthy members of society."
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