Andong City 'School Violence Peer Counselors' Yoon Gyusik and Bae Soeun Receive 'Gyeongbuk Provincial Superintendent of Education Commendation'

Students Yoon Gyusik (Kyungil High School, 2nd grade) and Bae Soeun (Seongchang Girls' High School, 2nd grade), who received the Gyeongbuk Provincial Office of Education Superintendent's Commendation for their activities as "peer counselors."

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongwook Park] Andong City Youth Counseling Welfare Center (Director Sohee Park) announced on the 5th that two peer counselors received the Gyeongbuk Provincial Office of Education Superintendent's Commendation through the '2020 School Violence Prevention Peer Counseling Project.'

At the '2020 Peer Counseling Performance Report Conference' hosted by the Korea Youth Counseling and Welfare Institute, student Kyusik Yoon (2nd year at Gyeongil High School) received the Superintendent's Commendation for an excellent peer counseling case contest.

Student Soeun Bae (2nd year at Seongchang Girls' High School) received the Superintendent's Commendation at the Excellent Peer Counselor Competition hosted by the Gyeongbuk Youth Development Foundation.

'Peer counseling' refers to activities where peers of similar age with similar experiences and values receive certain training and provide psychological and emotional support to help friends solve their concerns based on their own experiences, enabling their growth and development.

The peer counseling project is a representative collaborative project between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. It was initially spread around youth counseling welfare centers and some schools in 1994, then expanded to elementary, middle, and high schools in 2012 as part of the government's school violence eradication measures. Since 2020, about 300 peer counselors have been active in 23 elementary, middle, and high schools within Andong City.

An Andong City official stated, "We will actively discover peer counselors who can best empathize to solve youth problems and strive to further activate the peer counseling project through program diversification, so that youth violence prevention and a healthy school culture can be established."