SEVENTEEN member JOSHUA will take the podium at the “UNESCO x SEVENTEEN: Celebrating Youth, Creativity and Well-Being Together” ceremony, set to be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France on the 25th.
As UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Youth, he will represent the group and deliver a message to young people worldwide. UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany will also attend the event, which will be livestreamed on UNESCO’s official YouTube channel.
This is not JOSHUA’s first time speaking at the global stage. SEVENTEEN’s relationship with UNESCO began in November 2023, when the group became the first K-pop artist invited to the 13th UNESCO Youth Forum at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, where they delivered both a speech and a performance.
The following year, SEVENTEEN was appointed as UNESCO’s first Goodwill Ambassador for Youth and donated 1 million dollars to launch the Global Youth Grant Scheme. The fund supported 100 project teams working on initiatives such as building youth confidence and resilience through music, art, and sports, developing creative youth communities, and improving youth mental health.
In August 2025, marking International Youth Day, the group also donated an additional 250,000 dollars raised through a charity auction in collaboration with fashion brand sacai and digital commerce platform JOOPITER. These funds were allocated to further support 10 outstanding teams selected from the original 100, with the upcoming ceremony also serving as a milestone to review those outcomes.
As SEVENTEEN said through its agency, “Because we have grown by expressing the many colorful moments of youth through music that contains our honest experiences and emotions from debut until now, the meaning of International Youth Day feels even more special to us,” the theme of youth remains deeply connected to the group’s identity and music. Debuting as a 13-member group and consistently portraying their members’ growth through their songs, SEVENTEEN’s involvement in youth-focused programs reflects a natural extension of their artistic narrative into real-world impact.
What stands out in this ongoing partnership is its continuity and structure. While K-pop idols often engage with social issues through ambassadorships, donations, and campaigns, SEVENTEEN’s collaboration with UNESCO has developed over more than two years into a sustained framework. Starting from their 2023 forum participation, continuing through their ambassador appointment, the establishment of a dedicated fund, additional donations, and now deeper support for selected teams, the Global Youth Grant Scheme has evolved into a long-term initiative that relies on ongoing involvement rather than one-time contributions.