Daejeon City Allocates KRW 680 Million from Hometown Love Fund; Six Projects for Youth and Longstanding Local Needs Finalized

[Financial News, Daejeon = Kim Won-jun, Reporter] Daejeon City is set to launch its 2027 Hometown Love Fund projects, using hometown donations to ease the financial burden on young people and address longstanding local needs and gaps in the welfare system.
Daejeon City said on the 19th that it had recently convened the Daejeon Hometown Love Fund Management Deliberation Committee and finalized six projects totaling KRW 679.5 million. In particular, ahead of selecting the projects, the city held a public preference vote through Daejeon Siso, a citizen-participation platform for policy proposals. All six selected projects received strong public support and approval.
The selected projects focus on strengthening young people's future capabilities and easing their financial burden, in line with the vision of “Daejeon, a Special City for Youth” under the ninth popularly elected administration. They also include a number of projects to address longstanding local needs delayed by budget shortages and gaps in welfare services beyond the reach of public administration.
Three projects supporting young people and future generations were selected: subsidies for certification and language-test fees for unemployed young people; “Youth Policy Core Build-Up: From Design to Evaluation”; and programs that foster interaction between adolescents and animals and plants.
To address a longstanding local need, a project to provide shuttle buses to the Daejeon reserve forces training center was selected to ease travel difficulties for Daejeon reservists affected by the planned consolidation and relocation to Geumsan next year.
Projects to support arts and culture and protect vulnerable groups include an artificial intelligence (AI)-convergence arts concert and support for safety personnel protecting homeless people.
Daejeon Administrative Vice Mayor Park Yeon-byeong said, “Since we have seen the strong support and approval of citizens through Daejeon Siso, these fund projects are all the more meaningful. With these valuable donations, we will lay a firm foundation for ‘Daejeon, a Special City for Youth’ while completing, without a hitch, longstanding local projects that have been delayed, thereby improving residents’ quality of life.” The Hometown Love Fund projects for next year that passed this review are expected to be finalized in December after deliberation and approval by the Daejeon City Council.
Daejeon City has previously offered local specialties and Daejeon Love gift certificates (Ontong Daejeon) as thank-you gifts, but has recently expanded its selection to include local cultural and tourism experience vouchers and products from social enterprises, giving donors more choices. The model is seen as having a positive effect on satisfaction among both donors and local residents: the money spent on thank-you gifts goes directly to local small businesses and farms, while accumulated donations are reinvested in youth welfare and efforts to address longstanding local needs. This has established what the city describes as a “twofold virtuous cycle.”
[email protected] Kim Won-jun Reporter