Over the past centuries , much of our heritage has been irretrievably lost. We have witnessed, and continue to witness, the destruction and deterioration of irreplaceable treasures due to natural disasters, wars, extreme poverty, industrialisation, and pollution. Other underlying causes of this prolonged and continuing tragedy are ignorance, indifference, lack of care and lack of appreciation.Traditional and cultural values are ignored by today's generation and the young face cultural degeneration. The aim of the project is to help young people be more aware of the cultural prosperity and their own identity and characteristics, transferring them to the following generations, since those who have no awareness or value of their own heritage can hardly have bright future. The future of our remaining heritage will depend largely on the decisions and actions of the present generation of young people who will soon become the leaders and decision-makers of tomorrow. Building up responsible citizens is advocated as an essential aim for education, preparing people to become more creative and innovative in a society in search of new values, equality, social inclusion, and justice towards a more sustainable world in which cultural heritage education may play a key role.Education, culture and cultural heritage should not be seen as solely a response to the market-based economy; it is recommended to consider them as tools towards sustainable development.Our target group are students 14- 18. General Objectives: -Encourage young people to explore Europe's rich and diverse cultural heritage and reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space. -Develop intercultural skills of participants through creative activities . The specific objectives are : *Enhancing students capability to become not only fulfilled citizens able to live in society but also responsible citizens regarding the protection of cultural heritage. *To foster awareness of cultural heritage, emerge its uniqueness, emphasize the individuality of our countries and encourage dialogue amongst different cultures. * Develop young peoples’ emotional intelligence and effective communicative, collaborative and creative skills; * Discover different cultural identities and to what extent these different identities live together in Europe or in their own countries; * Introduce a sense of European dimension of education, introducing the idea of an international collaborative work and the amelioration of a European dimension on linguistic and cultural contents in the curriculum; * Increase the motivation of direct and indirect beneficiaries of lifelong learning to develop ICT skills as a way to communicate and to use them as a purposeful everyday tool, to learn a new language and as a means of communication and mastering English for project work; *Encourage the cooperation within 6 organisations in Europe and the exchange of good practices. Students will accept the fact that cultural heritage should be protected and developed by understanding the fundamental elements of their countries and partner countries' culture and history .Students will be able to identify the similarities and differences between people, objects, events and facts and understand change and continuity by questioning historical evidences belonging to different periods and places.Students will show sensitivity towards issues concerning their own country and the world by having the awareness that they are part of the humanity.One of the achievements of this Project will be the production, testing and evaluation of this Resource Kit which will become a valuable tool for teachers for sensitising young people to the importance of preserving their local, national and world heritage, for providing them with the necessary skills to do so and for instilling a life-long commitment to this worthy endeavour. Schools and organizations involved in the project will establish relations between the leadership of their assets to achieve project activities and the exchange of experiences and management solutions. Implementation of new pedagogical techniques and the use of new teaching materials learned during the project will result in changes in the curriculum, introduction of optional (school curriculum) based on the ideas introduced in the project.We believe that, in accordance with the "Lifelong Learning" strategy our project will strengthen the communication between our schools, representatives of education and local and international structures.At international level, we will be given the opportunity to introduce to our partner countries the uniqueness of the traditions and culture of each country.The project results will have a lasting impact on local, regional, European and foreign target groups.The project will undertake collaborative activities aimed at raising awareness about the value of cultural heritage and incorporating its education into various school subjects.
With this project, we wanted and achieved that students, teachers and youth workers and other relevant stakeholders (municipalities, parents, other students and teachers, local ngo's) involved in this project either directly or indirectly: -learned about their culture and heritage as well as the culture and heritage of the partner countries involved in the project -gained: intercultural skills, communication skills, presentation skills, problem solving, creativity, emotional inteligence and intercultural understanding All of the skills described above were gained through the whole joined work. And the outcomes are also: Website - where all the outcomes are published. Logo of the project Booklet of best practices Evaluation of the good practices Tourist guide Booklet - Cultural Heritage in Europe . Digital map of European folk characters Cultural Heritage tabboo game Video stories - My grandma told me Newsletters
The project's goal was to help young people become more aware of cultural prosperity as well as their own identity and characteristics and to pass these on to future generations because those who are unaware of or value their own heritage are unlikely to have a bright future. The project aimed to build up responsible citizens, and prepare people to be more creative and innovative in a society in search for new values, equality, social inclusion and more sustainable world. Cultural heritage education plays a key role in the process. We encouraged young people to explore European rich and diverse cultural heritage. The students had the opportunity to work together in their national as well as international groups.We had online as well as off site activities that were international. Through the work on this project the students developed also the skills needed for the future - creativity, communication, presentation skills, emotinal intelligence and digital skills. By representing and getting to know other cultures and friend from different countries and backgrounds the students as well as the teachers and youthworkers learn a lot about themselves, their culture and heritage and about the partner countries.