Bringing Smiles to the Faces of Children around the World - Our Approach in Japan-
Marubeni Corporation
2010.2.16
Helping to promote the Social Skill Training workshop held by the Osaka Child Welfare Service Association
For more than four decades since its establishment in 1964, the Aftercare Division of the Osaka Child Welfare Service Association (President Tajiri Genryu, Osaka-city) has supported the self-reliance of young adults that have grown up in foster homes in Osaka prefecture. As a part of these efforts, since 2001 the association has been holding workshops that teach these individuals the art of living on their own.
The “Social Skill Training” teaches young adults about the possible problems they might face after they leave their foster homes and begin to work and live on their own. Many of these problems arise because they do not have any immediate family they can live with or rely upon. Young adults attend a total of nine themed lectures during their last year of life in their foster home and learn about a variety of things, such as healthcare, laws, and regulations that are closely related to their lives. These lectures also warn them of the problems that often accompany borrowing money and conducting illegal business practices.
Marubeni Corporation Osaka Branch has worked together with the Osaka Child Welfare Service Association to put on this workshop since 2007 at the request of the Chuo-ward Philanthropic Commission, with whom the Branch is affiliated. This year alone 64 students between ninth and twelfth grade, who are expected to “graduate” from their foster homes and start supporting themselves next spring, visited the Marubeni Corporation Osaka Branch to learn about the general activities a trading company performs that are closely and deeply connected to their daily lives. In addition to these business activities, there were also lectures that introduced the company’s compliance and social contribution programs. Participants experienced a company lunch at the company cafeteria, learning what work in the real world means for them. For some students, it was their first time to enter a company. We received a lot of direct feedback from these students, such as “Marubeni’s commitment to being involved in such a variety of activities across so many different fields and countries is really impressive” or “It was tense watching employees taking their work so seriously.”
This project, the only accredited program of its kind in Japan, is designated as a community life and self-reliance support project (a model project) by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Thus, around 20 workers representing the welfare service and social welfare council from across Japan also took part in the lectures held that day.
Each year there are about 130 children that graduate from their junior high schools and high schools and leave their foster homes in Osaka. Osaka Child Welfare Service Association follows up on these young adults for 5 years by periodically sending bulletins and calendars, and also provides assistance through the self-reliance support facility the association runs, “Home Soramame (literally means ‘broad beans’).” This facility provides a place to stay for young adults that struggle to adapt to society and don’t have a home to go back to, or for those that can’t go back to their home for various reasons. The towels and T-shirts donated at these lectures by Marubeni Intex Co., Ltd. and Marubeni Fashion Link, Ltd. were warmly received.
>>Young adults enjoy the great view from the first company meeting room they’ve ever entered
>>“Home Soramame,” self-reliance assistance facility run by the Aftercare Division
Marubeni Group magazine "M-SPIRIT" VOL.54 (November, 2009)
