Gwangju Youth Life Design Center Expands Non-Face-to-Face and Convergent Content Operations

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 22nd that the Gwangju Youth Life Design Center (hereinafter referred to as Life Design) will expand its non-face-to-face and convergent content in preparation for the With Corona era.

Life Design is a youth career-specialized facility created by remodeling the Gwangju Student Independence Movement Memorial Hall by Gwangju City, and it opened on November 3, 2016. Since its opening, a total of 631 sessions with over 7,700 visitors from central government ministries, local governments, schools, and other educational institutions have been held.

In particular, in January this year, the Office for Government Policy Coordination evaluated it as "transforming a historic space for youth through innovation by the private sector and administration" and selected it as a "leading case of local participation in living SOC."

However, this year, due to COVID-19, it was difficult to meet youth directly, and the space was underutilized, causing operational challenges.

Accordingly, since March, Life Design has been trying various non-face-to-face activities and decided to expand the youth learning space beyond physical space to online, starting content development.

Through this, they developed 25 non-face-to-face and convergent content items across three types and began pilot operations targeting youth from June. Full-scale operations are planned from next year.

The non-face-to-face content developed by Life Design includes ▲‘Short-term pilot content’ that briefly checks in, ▲‘Non-face-to-face online content’ that can be done together anywhere, and ▲‘Face-to-face and non-face-to-face convergent content’ that supports long-term career projects and regular small group meetings.

First, during the COVID-19 spread period, ‘Short-term pilot content’ was introduced to check in and maintain connections.

Examples include ‘Just Dance,’ where youth dance separately yet together to overcome lethargy; ‘Bang-guseok Project ? Hip-hop Edition,’ where participants critique each other’s self-made songs; and the meal recovery project ‘Are You Eating?’ which started from stories of youth having their first meal at 4 p.m.

Additionally, ‘Non-face-to-face online content’ was planned to regain daily vitality, such as the ‘Online One-day Class’ where seasonal crops harvested from the Life Design garden are sent for cooking, and the ‘From Seed to Table Project,’ where participants share growth diaries while growing seeds they received in their own spaces and conclude with social dining.

Mid- to long-term projects were converted into ‘Face-to-face and non-face-to-face convergent content.’ From June to August, about 50 high school students participated in programs such as the ‘N After-school Rooms Project,’ spending three hours on weekday evenings doing woodworking, design, cooking, and composing, and the fashion and beauty project ‘All About 美 ME’ seeking true beauty.

Moreover, the climate crisis action group ‘1.5℃ Meeting,’ holding pickets across Gwangju, read 1.5 pages of a book, wrote online posts, and met online with ‘Youth Climate Action’ in Seoul to study together.

Gwangju City plans to distribute online next month a report on the non-face-to-face activities conducted this year at Life Design’s 4th anniversary, including cases, limitations, and discoveries.

Sohn Ok-su, head of the Youth and Young Adult Division of the city, said, “Youth find it difficult but rewarding to learn non-face-to-face as they have to do it alone,” and added, “We will actively experiment and prepare for the transition to the With Corona era.”