Songpa-gu 'Visiting Youth Life Respect Education'

Debate Program for 980 Elementary Students in 46 Classes at 9 Schools from September to November
99% School Satisfaction After Last Year's Pilot... Expanding Beneficiary Schools This Year for Full-Scale Implementation

Songpa-gu (Mayor Seo Gang-seok) announced that it will operate the ‘Visiting Youth Life Respect Education’ program for about 1,000 elementary school students from September to November to care for the mental health of local youth.

Recently, children’s mental health has emerged as a social issue. Along with the increase in youth suicide rates, non-suicidal self-injury through SNS is spreading like a trend, making social attention and care for younger students more important than ever.

Accordingly, the district piloted the ‘Visiting Life Respect Education’ program in seven schools last year in collaboration with the Songpa-gu Youth Counseling Welfare Center. Professional counselors visited classrooms to conduct discussions and group counseling to help students wisely overcome crisis situations and learn the value and importance of life.

In fact, a satisfaction survey showed that 98.9% of participating school officials responded that they were satisfied with the classes. There was positive feedback on the discussion-based education where peers respect each other and communicate, along with hopes for future expansion.

Reflecting this high satisfaction and ongoing demand from the field, the district will provide education to a total of 980 children in 46 classes across 9 schools in the region this year. Two professional instructors will work in pairs to lead group discussions by teams, teaching ▲ emotional recognition and emotional regulation skills enhancement ▲ the necessity of concerns and seeking rational solutions ▲ understanding issues of youth in crisis and methods to build peer support resources.

Youth are expected to develop a mindset that respects life and build healthy relationships by learning how to understand others’ feelings and wisely resolve conflicts during crisis situations with friends.

Seo Gang-seok, Mayor of Songpa-gu, said, “To proactively respond to the recently alarming youth mental health issues, we have increased the number of supported schools following last year’s pilot project,” and added, “Through substantial education, we will establish the ‘Songpa-type Youth Safety Net’ and take the lead in creating a healthy city for children.”