Enthusiasm is running high for the formation of the 1st Daejeon Youth Assembly, which aims to realize "Youth Special City Daejeon," a core vision of the 9th elected Daejeon City administration.

According to Daejeon City on the 13th, approximately 600 people applied during the 3-week open recruitment period for youth assembly members. While the assembly has a total quota of 100 members divided equally across four recruitment categories of 25 people each, the number of applicants surged to nearly six times the available positions.

This recruitment saw widespread participation from youth with diverse regional backgrounds and experiences. By autonomous district, applicants included ▲81 from Dong-gu, ▲66 from Jung-gu, ▲196 from Seo-gu, ▲216 from Yuseong-gu, and ▲42 from Daedeok-gu. By gender, there were ▲329 males and ▲272 females, with 37 applicants identified as socially disadvantaged.

This high level of interest appears to reflect expectations that the Youth Assembly will serve as a practical participatory body—going beyond merely listening to young people's opinions to directly uncover everyday challenges and reflect them in policies and budgets.

To enhance the representativeness and fairness of the Youth Assembly, Daejeon City plans to select the 100 youth members through a random stratified sampling method that comprehensively considers youth population ratios and gender distribution by district.

Selected youth assembly members will join one of four subcommittees corresponding to their life stages: ▲Career Exploration, ▲Social Entry, ▲Career Development, and ▲Family Formation. In these roles, they will discover and propose youth policy agendas and review youth participation budgets.

Following the random draw, Daejeon City will verify supporting documents to finalize the roster of youth assembly members. The final selection results will be announced on October 22 through the Daejeon Youth Portal, followed by an official launch ceremony on October 29 to kick off active operations.

"The high interest shown by young people in the Daejeon Youth Assembly demonstrates their strong will to make their voices heard regarding their lives and regional changes, and to build necessary policies together," said Oh Su-geun, Director General of Civil Society at Daejeon City. "We will actively support these youth voices so that they do not remain mere proposals but translate into practical policies and budgets, ensuring the Daejeon Youth Assembly establishes itself as a new model of participation connecting youth and municipal administration."

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