The city of Seongnam is recruiting participants for its "Policy Idea Youth Hackathon," in which young people directly propose local policies.
Seongnam said Monday that it is accepting applications through July 31 via the city's youth platform "Seongnam Cheongnyeon Dahae."
The competition was designed to allow young people to present problems they experience in daily life as policy ideas and to develop them into feasible initiatives.
The theme of the contest is "policies Seongnam needs, seen from a youth perspective." Applicants can participate by submitting a related proposal. The competition is open to young people aged 19 to 39. They must be Seongnam residents or attend a school or workplace in the Seongnam area. Participants can form teams of one to five people, and each team can submit up to two proposals.
Seongnam will conduct a document review based on five criteria, including problem definition, suitability, creativity, applicability, and level of effort. Through this, it plans to select seven teams to advance to the finals. Teams reaching the finals will receive support such as one-on-one expert consulting, education, mentoring, and preliminary review by working-level departments. The city plans to use this to help turn youth ideas into actual policies.
The finals will be held on August 28 at Hannuri on the third floor of Seongnam City Hall. The advancing teams will present their policy ideas on-site. The city will determine the final rankings through a comprehensive review of the level of policy refinement, presentation skills, and on-site response.
Total prize money is 6 million won. One grand prize team will receive 2 million won, two excellence award teams will each receive 1 million won, and four encouragement award teams will each receive 500,000 won. Winning teams will also receive a certificate from the Seongnam mayor.
"This competition will be an opportunity for young people to substantively participate in the policymaking process," a Seongnam official said. "We will actively support efforts to ensure that the proposals discovered lead to policies citizens can feel."
