Seongnam City Provides Special Support for At-Risk Youth Living Expenses, Up to 650,000 KRW per Month

Customized Support Provided in the Most Needed Single Area, Such as Qualification Exams and Academy Fees

Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Shin Sang-jin) announced on the 6th that it will launch a special support project for at-risk youth.

Seongnam City, Special Support Project for At-Risk Youth Poster. Provided by Seongnam City

This project aims to identify and support youth facing social and economic difficulties to help them grow healthily.

The support targets out-of-school youth aged 9 to 24 residing in Seongnam City whose household income is at or below 100% of the median income, including reclusive youth, youth needing prevention from delinquency or deviation, youth without guardians, or those not effectively protected by guardians.

Among eight support areas?living, independence, academics, health, counseling, legal, and others?the most needed single area will be provided with customized support for 5 to 10 months starting from March.

By type of recipient, support includes △basic living expenses and lodging (up to 650,000 KRW per month) △independence support such as skill acquisition and job experience (up to 360,000 KRW per month) △academic support including tuition, qualification exams, and academy fees (up to 300,000 KRW per month) △health support such as medical examinations, tests, and hospitalization (up to 2 million KRW annually).

Other types include △counseling support (up to 300,000 KRW per month) △legal support such as litigation and legal consultation fees (up to 3.5 million KRW annually) △activity support including training and cultural experience fees (up to 300,000 KRW per month) △and other support such as school uniform purchase and tattoo removal.

Applications for support can be submitted by the youth themselves or people around them by February 18 through the local administrative welfare center or the online ‘Bokjiro’ website.

Seongnam City will select recipients and determine support amounts through procedures including income and eligibility verification and review by the Youth Welfare Deliberation Committee.

A Seongnam City official stated, “We will actively support these youth to help them overcome crisis situations,” and urged, “We ask those around them to pay close attention as well.”