The National Child Rights Agency will hold the "2026 Independence Camp for Children in Extended Care" for about 150 children in extended or soon-to-end state care across three cities — Gwangju, Busan and Seoul — from Monday through Aug. 25, the agency said.
Children in extended care are those who were under protection at child welfare facilities or in foster care and have chosen to extend that protection beyond the age of 18. The extension can last until age 25.
The camp will run as a one-night, two-day program in three regional sessions: Monday and Tuesday in the Jeolla region (Gwangju), Aug. 20-21 in the Gyeongsang region (Busan), and Aug. 24-25 in the Greater Seoul area.
The camp will offer practical life-skills and financial literacy programs tailored to participants' developmental stages and readiness for independent living, alongside sessions on self-understanding and exploring life goals. It will also support interaction between participants and young adults who have already made the transition to independence.
Key programs include a talk concert featuring young adults who have previously gone through the independence process (sunbae), a financial literacy session developed in partnership with the financial platform Toss, a self-understanding and strengths-discovery workshop, and a lecture by referee Jeong Dong-sik titled "Building a Bulletproof Mental Vest to Protect Yourself."
At the talk concert, young adults who have successfully transitioned to independence and are now active in various fields will join as panelists to share their experiences with job preparation and the independence process. The session aims to ease the psychological burden on participants approaching independence and encourage mutual support among them.
The financial literacy session will cover the importance of saving, safe investment practices and spending management, as well as recent types of financial fraud — including investment chat-room scams — and how to avoid them.
Kim Yu-im, president of the National Child Rights Agency, said she hoped the camp would give children in extended care "a chance to discover their own strengths and capabilities, and to take a stable first step toward independence through a network built with sunbae and fellow participants." She added that the agency would "continue working to ensure that the support young people preparing for independence need actually reaches them on the ground."
thlee@heraldcorp.com
