Gwangju City Supports Social Entry of Youth with Weak Foundations for Self-Reliance

Five Mentors, Twenty Mentees: "Mentoring"
Launching the "Hashtag Mentoring Project"

Hashtag Mentoring Orientation Material Photo. Provided by Gwangju City

On May 18, Gwangju City announced that it will officially launch the "Hashtag Mentoring Project," which supports young people with weak foundations for self-reliance as they enter society.

This project is a customized mentoring program designed to help young people preparing for independence, youth caregivers, children of single-parent families, and other youth with vulnerable self-reliance foundations overcome practical difficulties such as emotional isolation, lack of information, and career confusion, while also strengthening their practical capacity for self-reliance.

Previously, the city selected 20 young participants through an open recruitment process and held an orientation at the Gwangju Youth Center on May 7, officially launching the program. The 20 selected youth will be matched with five experts who have extensive experience supporting young people, at a ratio of four to one, and a total of 20 mentoring sessions will be held over about five months until September.

Mentees will directly plan their own self-reliance projects, which may include career planning, academic or certificate acquisition, and job preparation. Mentors will provide practical advice such as resume writing, interview coaching, and career exploration, and will also support connections to external resources.

The city will provide each participating youth with up to 800,000 won for project implementation and a monthly participation allowance of 600,000 won. In addition, common education sessions will be held on topics closely related to daily life, such as financial and fiscal management and psychological and emotional recovery.

Kwon Yunsook, Director of Youth Policy, stated, "This project is meaningful in that it deeply empathizes with each young person's individual situation and leads to practical self-reliance," adding, "We will continue to provide tailored support so that young people can settle and grow stably in the local community."