Dobong-dong Youth Culture Center concludes 'Self Challengers' health program with community sports day

The Dobong-dong Youth Culture Center announced on the 22nd that it concluded its youth health promotion program, 'Self Challengers,' on the 17th with the 'Get Out of Your Room Sports Day.' A total of 318 youths and local residents participated in the program.

Operated as part of the '2026 Excellent Youth Activity Program Support Project,' Self Challengers has been running since July. During 14 sessions, 15 youths participated, focusing on reviewing their dietary and physical activity habits and designing healthy lifestyle habits they could practice in daily life. Based on lifestyle checks and InBody measurements, participants set individual health goals and recorded their progress—including regular meals, hydration, sleep, and physical activity—in a lifestyle record booklet.

Dietary activities involved learning about major nutrients and the meaning of a balanced meal, after which groups designed and cooked their own menus. Physical activities were conducted by allowing participants to experience exercises suited to their own physical condition and level, ranging from basic exercises with experts to forest experiences, skating, and water play. This structure appears meaningful in that it goes beyond a simple experiential program to create a framework where youths themselves check and implement their lifestyle habits.

In the latter half, the program expanded into activities where individuals shared their practices with the local community. Youths contributed ideas and divided roles while preparing a bulgogi pizza-making booth and the sports day, and they also took on roles helping the proceedings by explaining methods to other participants. The final sharing activity, 'Get Out of Your Room Sports Day,' was attended by 52 youths, including 19 elementary school students, 30 middle school students, and 3 university student mentors. The Self Challengers youths acted as the primary organizers, taking charge of everything from planning 'Our Own Dodgeball' to setting rules and serving as facilitators and referees.

The Dobong-dong Youth Culture Center stated that these activities served as an experience that started from small practices of caring for one's own health and expanded into creating activities with peers and sharing what was learned with the local community. The fact that the youths did not remain mere participants but took charge of planning and operation suggests the potential for expanding youth-led programs in the future.

Read the original (Korean)