Yangcheon District Opens "Policy Battle" as a Testbed for Youth Policy
Eunpyeong District Strengthens Direct Youth Choice in Budget Policy
Gwanak District Leads Dance and Culture... Communicating with Youth Through Festivals
Seoul's autonomous districts are increasingly making young people direct partners in policy-making. This reflects a commitment to include youth voices in district affairs and to win their support through active participation and communication.
Yangcheon District will hold a "Youth Policy Battle" at the Yangcheon Digital Media Center on August 13. Over three months, 27 teams submitted proposals, and five teams that passed the document screening advanced to the final round, receiving one-on-one consultations with policy experts. In the finals, young participants will present their policy ideas directly and have their feasibility tested through real-time discussions.
Youth will also participate in the evaluation process. The judging panel consists of seven professional judges and a youth audience panel of 30 members selected through an open call, ensuring fairness. The experts will evaluate policy effectiveness, validity, creativity, completeness, and clarity, while the youth audience will cast their votes on site. The final ranking will be determined by combining 70% of the experts' scores and 30% of the audience's votes.
The winning entries will be showcased at the "Youth Policy Expo" on Youth Day, and outstanding policies will be reflected in next year's budget and implemented. Lee Kijae, Mayor of Yangcheon District, emphasized, "Policy ideas proposed and designed directly by young people will be a driving force for change in Yangcheon," adding, "The administration will actively support the institutionalization and realization of youth ideas."
Eunpyeong District has strengthened young people's direct policy choices this year by increasing the youth budget in the participatory budgeting resident vote to a maximum of 100 million won. Until August 29, residents?including young people aged 19 to 39?can vote online and offline to select major projects such as the "Youth Campus" for job competency development, moving expense support, and the daily life recovery project for isolated youth.
Youth themselves are also encouraged to propose and select youth projects. Both youth and adolescents can make their voices heard directly through online voting on the resident participation platform "Participation Forest" and offline on-site voting. Kim Mikyung, Mayor of Eunpyeong District, said, "This year, we raised the youth project budget ceiling to 100 million won to reflect more youth opinions," urging active participation.
Gwanak District will hold its representative youth cultural festival, "2025 Groove in Gwanak," in the Byeolbitnaerincheon area from August 30 to 31. The festival will feature a youth dance battle, performances by world-renowned B-boy crews, and stages where young people take center stage, including DJ, graffiti, and flea market events.
In particular, programs supporting aspiring artists in collaboration with Seoul National University, dance clubs nationwide, and the Arts Council Korea, as well as overseas advancement programs, further enhance Gwanak District's status as a center of youth culture. Youth and the local community will also participate together in pre-events such as warm-up dance programs and dance busking.
Park Junhee, Mayor of Gwanak District, stated, "This is more than just a dance performance; it is an integrated cultural platform based on youth autonomy and creativity," adding, "We will continue to pursue policies for a better life for young people."
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