'Seoul Made by My Own Hands'... Seoul Youth Policy Network Recruiting Youth

500 Participants to Be Selected After Completing Pre-Training

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 5th that it will recruit young people to participate in the Seoul Youth Policy Network from tomorrow until the 5th of next month. Participants in the Youth Policy Network will engage in various activities to solve social issues, including policy proposals and discussions for youth autonomous budget allocation, and campaign activities through division-specific activities.

The Youth Policy Network is a youth participation organization of the Seoul Metropolitan Government established to solve social problems through voluntary youth participation, under the slogan "Seoul Made by My Own Hands." Since 2013, it has proposed various policies from the youth perspective, publicized issues, and presented practical solutions.

To ensure sustainable operation of the Youth Policy Network, Seoul has collected various improvement suggestions and significantly reflected them in the 2023 operation plan. Key improvements include strengthening education for policy proposal activities, enhancing consultation with public officials and experts for youth autonomous budget proposals, activating networking among participants, and reinforcing social contribution activities.

First, unlike last year, this year, among applicants, young people with strong willingness to participate who complete the pre-education course will be selected and appointed as members, and will work in six divisions: ▲Climate & Environment ▲Culture & Arts ▲Social Safety Net ▲Jobs & Startups ▲Housing ▲Equality & Human Rights. The pre-education course will be conducted in March after the recruitment ends, combining basic education (online) and advanced courses (offline).

Additionally, from the initial stage of policy proposals for youth autonomous budget allocation, policy ideas will be discovered through meetings with relevant Seoul city departments to prevent similar or duplicate policy proposals. For participants who find it difficult to propose policies, expert consultation will be provided throughout the entire policy proposal process from the initial drafting stage.

Due to COVID-19, activities were mainly non-face-to-face for the past two years, but this year, activities will fully transition to face-to-face, promoting exchanges among participants through various networking programs such as campaign activities to solve social issues, activation of small group meetings, and meetings with senior Youth Policy Network participants.

Meanwhile, as the Youth Policy Network represents the youth who are the future leaders of society, it plans to actively take the lead in social contribution activities. To this end, it has signed a business agreement with the Seoul Volunteer Center and established a cooperative system to activate volunteering, allowing participants to identify various social issues on-site and engage in activities to improve these problems.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government added that Youth Policy Network participants will start attending division meetings and discovering agendas from April, refine agendas through policy idea competitions and meetings with relevant departments, and after deliberation and discussion of the discovered agendas at the October general meeting, they will lead the process of deriving essential policies for a sustainable future of Seoul beyond solving youth issues.

Youth wishing to participate in the Youth Policy Network can apply on the Seoul Youth Policy Network website by the 5th of next month. Any Seoul youth aged 19 to 39 interested in Seoul policies can apply, and participants will receive benefits such as volunteer hour recognition and mayoral commendations.

Kim Cheol-hee, head of the Seoul Future Youth Planning Group, said, “The Seoul Youth Policy Network is a policy public forum where youth actively participate to discover the most necessary agendas in citizens’ daily lives and solve problems. I hope that through the participation of young people and various policy proposals, it will be the starting point of creative administration reflecting policies needed by Seoul citizens and the foundation for creating ‘Youth Seoul.’”