discharged from out-of-home care. They have been living in the protection system outside the home for most of their lives. The ratio of single-person household in Korea is 30.2%, but in contrast the ratio of single-person households among youths preparing for independence is 61.6%,307) which is twice as high, making their social networks more vulnerable. Moreover, there is still a prejudice in Korean society against people who have lived in facilities. The support plan for children discharged from out-of-home care is changing positively, but bringing about a change in social awareness is also essential for these children to grow into healthy members of society. Therefore, beyond simply providing economic support, it is necessary to strengthen relationship-based services after the end of protection, including development of programs that can strengthen the psychological and emotional support for children while they are being protected, improving the professionalism of independence supporting personnel through improving case management, develop ways to connect social mentors, etc.308) Moreover, it is necessary to consider recruiting sufficient manpower to related institutions to enable integrated management, and ways of providing authority to preemptively confirm the need to provide the service, even if not specifically requested by these children, including the children who left the facility early.309) The support policy for the youths preparing for independence is not simply a matter of support prior to being discharged or providing financial support. It is necessary to support children and youths subject to self-reliance support so that they can grow into healthy adults who can exercise the right to self-determination under a sense of self-responsibility and social solidarity, and to this end, it is necessary to prepare a foundation for support tailored to the individual needs of these youths, and to seek ways to strengthen their capabilities upon this foundation. 307) Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Study on Improving the Delivery System of Protective Services to Strengthen the Support for Youths Preparing for Independence, Dec. 2021. 308) See Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Study on Improving the Delivery System of Protective Services to Strengthen the Support for Youths Preparing for Independence, Dec. 2021, etc. 309) In 2022, the government plans to install agencies dedicated to support independence in 17 cities and provinces across the country, and by 2023, the number of people dedicated to support independence will also increase from 120 to 180, but there are about 13,000 discharged youths between 2017 and 2021, and it seems necessary to evaluate whether the number of managers per person is at a level that can provide integrated services. 133