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Busan Metropolitan City Youth Counseling and Welfare Center to Promote a Culture of Respect for Life in Schools in Observance of World Suicide Prevention Day

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Chun Jae-soo, announced that it will intensively operate respect-for-life programs and school-arrival outreach activities at schools across Busan in observance of World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, with the aim of raising young people’s awareness of the value of life and expanding a culture of suicide prevention.

The activities will be carried out by the Busan Metropolitan City Youth Counseling and Welfare Center in cooperation with three Youth Counseling and Welfare Centers in Jung-gu, Dong-gu, and Yeongdo-gu, focusing primarily on middle and high schools in each district.

The school-arrival outreach campaign will reach approximately 1,610 students, delivering messages about the value of life, providing information on youth counseling services, and helping identify at-risk young people at an early stage.

The respect-for-life program will be provided to approximately 765 students, educating them about the preciousness of life, the value of respecting life, ways to cope with crisis situations, and how to seek help, thereby strengthening their ability to respond to crises on their own.

These activities are part of the Project to Expand a Culture of Respect for Life among Youth and Establish a Crisis Response System, being implemented by the Busan Metropolitan City Youth Counseling and Welfare Center with support from the Community Chest of Korea’s Fruit of Love.

The project will be implemented over three years from 2026 to 2028 with a total budget of KRW 1.2 billion. In 2026, it will establish a foundation for a culture of respect for life and build a tailored emergency response system. In 2027, it will expand a community-centered culture of respect for life and strengthen emergency response and post-crisis care systems. In 2028, it plans to establish a sustainable youth crisis response system and disseminate successful project models.

Beginning in 2027, Busan Metropolitan City will introduce the “Together for Life School–Blue Wave Certification Program” to support schools in independently creating and spreading a culture of respect for life. In 2028, the certification program will be expanded and exemplary cases will be identified and shared to help sustain a school-centered culture of respect for life.

The “Together for Life School–Blue Wave Certification Program” awards certification plaques to schools that participate in respect-for-life programs and outreach activities.

Following activities conducted in the first half of this year, Busan Metropolitan City will continue field-based efforts to expand a culture of respect for life in the second half.

During the first half of the year, respect-for-life programs were provided to 445 students in 20 classes at five elementary, middle, and high schools in Busan, while school-arrival outreach activities were conducted for 3,350 students at five schools.

Busan Metropolitan City will conduct intensive activities in September in conjunction with World Suicide Prevention Day and will continue respect-for-life programs and outreach activities for middle and high schools in October and November, enabling more young people to learn about the value of respecting life and how to seek help in crisis situations.

In addition, Busan Metropolitan City will strengthen its community-centered crisis response system to enable faster and more systematic responses when young people in crisis are identified.

Tailored emergency response manuals will be developed and distributed for frontline practitioners at schools and Youth Counseling and Welfare Centers, along with psychological stabilization materials for young people, parents, and teachers. The Youth Crisis Response Consultative Body established in the first half of the year will also continue to operate, strengthening the joint response system among schools, Youth Counseling and Welfare Centers, and related organizations.

Through these efforts, Busan Metropolitan City plans to build an “All-Connected” youth safety net that goes beyond preventive education on respect for life and provides seamless support from the early identification of at-risk young people through emergency intervention, referral to specialized institutions, post-crisis care, and recovery.

Kim So-young, Director-General of the Women and Family Bureau of Busan Metropolitan City, said, “A culture of respect for life is an important value that schools, families, and local communities must build together. We will continue to strengthen respect-for-life education and the early identification of young people in crisis, particularly in schools, and work closely with local communities to establish a comprehensive youth safety net that seamlessly connects prevention, crisis response, recovery, and post-crisis care.”