A Korean activist in her 20s, who asked not to be named because she does not want her childhood history to follow her into adulthood, is one of them.
When she was six or seven, she and her younger sibling were placed in a residential child care facility after their father found himself unable to raise them alone.
She remained in institutional care into her early 20s. But when the time came to leave, she had something many young care leavers — those who must leave foster or institutional care as they enter adulthood — do not have: an adult she could turn to.
Her father had continued to visit her while she was growing up, and she eventually moved in with him and her grandmother after leaving the facility.
“I was fortunate because I had at least one adult I could rely on emotionally,” said the woman, who has since married.
“That helped me get through it. Young people who do not have even one person like that can face much greater difficulties.”
Government assistance has expanded, but support can still fall short when it comes to the relationships, reassurance and everyday guidance young adults often rely on as they make the transition to independent living.
More than 8,500 young people left South Korea's institutional or foster care system over the five years through 2024, while another 5,177 remained in extended care before transitioning to independent living, according to government figures. Those in extended care can remain under protection until age 24.
A 2023 government survey found that 46.5 percent of young care leavers had thought about suicide at some point in their lives, while 18.3 percent said they had experienced serious suicidal thoughts during the previous year. Their average life satisfaction was 5.6 out of 10, compared with 6.7 among the broader population aged 19 to 34.
Young people in residential facilities grow up surrounded by other children and staff. Then one day, some find themselves returning alone to a home with no one waiting inside.
Signing a housing contract, dealing with a bank, choosing a career or finding out what government assistance is available are tasks that many people in their early 20s discuss with their parents. Some care leavers have no such person to call.
“Some call and ask, ‘How do I use this washing machine?’” Park said. “What seems basic to us may not have been basic for them.”
Regional self-reliance support agencies contact young people after they leave care, but some do not answer calls or messages. Those who are already socially withdrawn can be among the hardest to reach because meeting people or asking for help has itself become difficult.
Park recalled young adults who repeatedly canceled appointments or disappeared from contact for extended periods. Some spent most of their time at home and struggled even with basic self-care.
“Even if they did not want to meet, the worker would keep calling and asking, ‘Have you eaten? Is anything difficult?’” Park said. “One young man I met again a year later proudly told me that he had gotten a haircut.”
“What they remember is often not something big,” Park said. “It can be making gimbap together or going for a walk with a family.”
Such experiences, she said, can give children a model of family life and a sense of what it feels like to receive one-on-one attention from an adult.
“Experiences of being loved have to build up from childhood,” Park said. “What children experience and the adults they meet when they are young can make a difference when they become adults.”
Some recipients have described the support itself as a reminder that people they have never met still care about what happens to them.
“Some tell us they are grateful that people who do not even know them are willing to help,” Park said. “They say they want to remember that support and not waste their lives.”
But access to such support is not automatic.
YANA operates an emergency medical assistance program called YANA 119, but young care leavers first have to know that the program exists and be willing to seek help. The organization publicizes it through social media, notices sent to residential care facilities and partner organizations that work with care leavers.
Once a case is referred or an application is submitted, YANA reviews whether financial assistance is needed. Park said the nonprofit's board members, who are physicians, assess the medical circumstances before deciding who will receive support.
“Our board members who are doctors review whether the young person genuinely needs the assistance, and support is provided to those selected through that process,” Park said.
The program provides emergency medical assistance to care leavers who might otherwise struggle to pay for treatment, including those facing serious illnesses or conditions requiring urgent care. It is not limited to people considered at risk of suicide.
Those who know about available programs and are willing to ask for help have a route into the support system. Those who are deeply isolated, or simply unaware that help exists, are much harder to reach.
They included young people working delivery jobs who had been injured but could not afford treatment, as well as others suffering from illnesses requiring longer-term care.
“They have no one to turn to for help,” Yoo said.
At the time of the interview, Yoo said YANA had referred several young people in need of medical support to the organizers. Details of the individual cases were kept off the record.
Their employment rate stood at 52.4 percent in 2023, compared with 61.3 percent among South Koreans aged 20 to 29, while nearly 70 percent lived alone.
Organizers said proceeds from the event would be delivered to YANA to support emergency medical care and psychological counseling.
“Instead of saying, ‘I’ll help someday when I can afford to,’ we wanted people to start with something small they can do now,” Yoo said.
Few care leavers volunteer to speak to the press. Many do not want a childhood spent in institutional care to become a stigma they carry into adulthood.
Silence can make the people most in need of help the least visible.
Park said those willing to speak publicly are often more comfortable discussing their background or have reached a relatively stable point in their lives. Those who are more socially isolated are often the hardest to reach.
Society may group them under the label “young care leavers” and classify them as a vulnerable population.
But leaving care is a circumstance, not an identity — and what many lack is not simply financial assistance, but the ordinary network of people most others call home.
AJP Takeaways
- More than 8,500 young care leavers exited South Korea’s institutional or foster care system over the five years through 2024, while thousands more remain in extended care.
- A 2023 government survey found 46.5 percent had experienced suicidal thoughts, while many also face gaps in medical care, employment and everyday support after leaving care.
- Groups such as YANA and RISE UP are providing medical, psychological and practical assistance, but socially isolated young people can still be difficult to reach.
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