The Social Innovation Center

The Social Innovation Center  hopes to make the society and local areas better places to live adopting small ideas and actions of daily life people make. It provides citizens having concrete suggestions and requests with both online and offline platforms to participate in policy-making process through concrete suggestions and requests. Furthermore, it supports people to make small changes through their own actions with the “Do It Yourself Spirit” (a belief that you can make a world in which you desire to live in). The center operates citizen participatory projects and education programs to support and make a plan of citizen-led social innovation actions. Also, it presents and fosters new social innovation models for non-profit, private and public sectors so that they can cooperate in crossing boundaries.

The Roots Center

The center conducts research on local regions and develops diverse and original regional revitalization programs, applying the philosophy of field-centered research, application and pragmatic spirit (shilSaGuShi). In particular, based on inquiries into the human, historical, cultural, and natural resources of the regions, the center strives for establishing strategies that vary according to regional differences, and plans for sustainable development.
The roots center encourages community members to participate in vitalizing communities that are operated by the residents. And it focuses on several agendas on local issues such as recovering cities, making public open spaces to improve the quality of life, offering “community businesses” in which community members address the local issues themselves, vitalizing rural areas in a way that protect lives, and community funds that support diverse public profit activities as well as help communities develop an intermediary supporting system.
In terms of the issues above, the center pursues of making humane communities, sound local and rural areas to stand on their own feet, original and competitive local governments, and regions where participation and innovation are combined.

The Center for Social Economy

The Center for Social economy is distinguished from a free market economy in a way that operated by reciprocity and solidarity in contrast to extreme competitiveness and pursuit of profits in a free market economy. Social economy is a new economic paradigm that makes livable and strong communities through people’s voluntary participation, collaboration and solidarity.
The center thinks about the solution to exclusion of people from economic, social and cultural aspects and damaged traditional socio-economic sphere in our society. And the solution has to be discovered from the things regarded as boundaries, not from the center or majority of the society. With this belief, the center has started socio-economic actions to make affluent communities.

Center for Senior Social Contribution

The center supports seniors with rich life experiences and professional expertise to live and plan their second life after retirement by participating in civic nonprofit activities or social enterprises. It operates various education programs for retirees so that they can design and take part in social contribution activities. And also conducts research to develop diverse retiree contribution models.

Education Center

Education changes people and people change regions. The education center processes the education and research needed in building a lateral relationship between local government heads, local assembly men, public officers, local leaders and regional civil organizations in collaboration in terms of solving regional issues or problems.
Also, it plans and operates civil education programs which aid citizens in understanding society and encourages them to build a democratic civil society that leads to global change.

Membership Management Center

The Hope Institute which does not receive any government fund aims to run an independent nongovernmental think and do-tank operated by citizens’ donations and profits earned from research activities.
The Membership management center makes an effort to secure continuous membership and so as to build a participatory nongovernmental research organization mobilized by the strength of ten-thousand citizens through various membership programs.
Through this, the center tries to make the Hope Institute function as a public space which members actively participate in. with healthy and stable financial structure to flourish social changes.

Planning and Public Relations Center

The Center plans long-term visions, directions of development, and methods to strengthen research capability and promotes international cooperation in civil, government and business sectors  to make the Hope Institute of the people, by the people. We try to share the activities and achievements with citizens, local organizations, the central or local government via our website and social networks. Also, it operates the “Mokminguan Club” which is gathering of local governors for promoting and discussing local issues. With the regular gathering and activities of Mokminguan club, it coordinates that the local governors try to accomplish the devolution of power to the regions and encourage  independence of local public finance, development of pragmatic policies and the making of sustainable communities.