The main objective of the PROSOA RURAL project is to promote the enhancement of social and civic competences in educational centers in rural areas to encourage young people to have an entrepreneurial spirit focused on generating local development initiatives. These Initiatives should meet the needs of the environment where they live, conserving the Cultural Heritage and the Traditions. On the one hand, the promotion among young people of active participation in society will help to foster the roots among youth and curb the depopulation caused by the migration of young people from rural areas, (with the risk that this entails for the disappearance of villages and therefore of their cultural heritage). And on the other hand, the impulse of social entrepreneurship contributes to the implementation of local development initiatives linked to the cultural heritage and the environment where they live, becoming possible even entrepreneurial initiatives that end up in a business, which would encourage settlement in the rural areas, and therefore, the maintenance of the villages and their traditional traditions. The PROSOA RURAL project has as its reference the European Year of Cultural Heritage and one of its goals: to encourage more people to discover and commit themselves to the European cultural heritage and to reinforce the feeling of belonging to a common European area. The year motto is: "Our heritage: where the past meets the future". For that, the PROSOA RURAL project aims to develop materials that support educators in rural training centers so that they can transmit these values to young people. These materials will be based on a methodology focused on the promotion of active participation and social entrepreneurship linked to the conservation of Cultural Heritage and Traditions at local, regional, national and European level: IO1 Catalog of Good Practices: "European Initiatives for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage and Traditions". IO2 Training module: "Active Participation of Rural Youth". (Methodology and exercises) IO3 Training module: "Social Entrepreneurship in the Rural Environment". Methodology and exercises. IO4 Results and Sustainability Report of the RURAL PROSOA project. As final product, a PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR RURAL ENVIRONMENT YOUNG PEOPLE will be obtained describing initiatives developed in Europe related to the conservation of Cultural Heritage and motivation tools to promote the participation and social entrepreneurship of young people in rural areas. This approach will be sustainable through IO4 and it will be focused on how to integrate and ensure that training modules could be integrated into the services of rural education centers and other entities in each partner country.
The aim of the European Year of Cultural Heritage was to encourage more people to discover and engage with European cultural heritage and to reinforce the feeling of belonging to a common European space. The motto of the year was: "Our heritage: where the past meets the future." As the European Commission states, “cultural heritage influences our identity and our daily life. It is part of the towns and cities, natural landscapes and archaeological sites of Europe. It is not only found in literature, art and objects, but also in the crafts learned from our ancestors, the stories we tell our children, the food we enjoy in company, and the movies we watch and in which we we acknowledge ”. Our responsibility as citizens is to maintain and preserve our customs and our heritage so that subsequent generations can enjoy it and learn from it, therefore, the PROSOA RURAL project places special emphasis on transmitting to young people the need to know the environment in which you live , take care of it and keep alive the culture that our grandparents transmitted to us. The PROSOA RURAL project has had as its main objective to promote the promotion of social and civic competences in educational centers in rural areas to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit in young people focused on the generation of local development initiatives that meet the needs of the environment where they live, based on or inspiration, the conservation and promotion of Cultural Heritage and Traditions. On the one hand, promoting active participation in society among young people will help foster roots among young people and stop the population drain that causes the flight of young people from rural settings, (with the risk that this entails for disappearance). towns and therefore their cultural heritage). And on the other hand, the promotion of social entrepreneurship contributes to starting local development initiatives linked to cultural heritage and the environment where they live, even becoming possible entrepreneurial initiatives that end up in a business, which would promote the settlement in the municipalities rural areas, and therefore, the maintenance of the towns and their traditional customs. For this, the PROSOA RURAL project has developed educational materials that support educators in training centers in rural areas so that they can transmit these values to young people. These materials have been compiled into a guide for educators where the main themes are the promotion of active participation and social entrepreneurship linked to the conservation of Cultural Heritage and Traditions at local, regional, national and European level. The Guide consists of two training modules, which include theoretical content that train trainers and that they can transmit to young people in rural areas, and 50 practical exercises so that trainers have useful and proven tools at their disposal that allow them to promote these skills among the youth population in rural areas. The Guide includes a compilation of Good Practices in the conservation and promotion of Cultural Heritage, which we consider as a source of inspiration for future initiatives. The materials have been tested by youth trainers and by the young people themselves in each of the participating countries, which has made it possible to adjust the contents to the real needs of the beneficiaries. In addition, a virtual conference was held in each of the countries to show the guide and the educational materials included in it, as well as the main results obtained from the piloting phase. These events have involved more than 200 people in Europe, which we hope will become a multiplier effect that allows the innovative materials of this project to be transmitted to a much larger number of educators and young people throughout Europe. We hope that these materials contribute to promoting youth entrepreneurship initiatives in European rural environments that generate new opportunities for growth and mitigate rural depopulation, helping to conserve European cultural heritage.