The "HANDMADE YOU(TH)" project is a strategic partnership of handicraft organizations from Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic. The goal of the project is to save crafts, handicrafts and vanishing professions from forgottenness. Folk art and crafts, from which contemporary techniques derive, occupy a special place in the history and life of each nation, being a specific branch of its material and spiritual heritage. Crafts and ancient arts are the subject of national prestige and the universally recognized contribution of each of the partner countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia) to the world cultural heritage. His behavior, rebirth and development for future generations is an idea that guided us at every stage of work on that project. Its recipients are young people, both associated with the broadly understood craft, and people for whom it is only a forgotten relic of the past. We want to show that on the basis of that "relic" you can build a plane for contemporary activities with the help of modern techniques and tools. Project activities will enable young people to discover craft as a new, both as a form of communing with local culture and as an attractive way of spending free time, which is in opposition to the culture of consumption and a fast lifestyle. An important aspect of the project is striving to improve social cohesion, by including young people in intergenerational integration and ensuring continuity of transferred competences, skills and traditions, and thus values. The project assumes the creation of a platform of the dissemination of the value of handicrafts in the form of a networking groups, through which it will be possible to include people involved in handicrafts, as well as gathering recipients of this form of activity. The groups will also be an educational tool for youth workers and craftsmen, created for young people, i.e. those who want these traditional, valuable and often unique classes to stand the test of time. The groups will also be a form of wide promotion of the craft and handicrafts themselves, for which short contemporary forms of communication are insufficient and which only by appropriate time and "slow life" approach allow to assimilate the richness of the values of previous generations and universal truths. Young craftsmen and people supporting young crafts and vanishing professions will take part in the project as mentors, as part of the Young Handicraft Ambassadors Program. Project activities will be carried out in international cooperation in a common geographical area of Central and Eastern Europe. Crafts and handicrafts are extremely diverse locally, hence their joint geographical combination will show their richness and release the need for recipients to discover geographically close cultures, which are often more unknown than distant, well-promoted achievements. The project will result in local handicraft products. In total, there will be three unique products: from Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic, which will prove how to promote local culture in a contemporary way while maintaining its values. The product will be an excuse to tell a larger history of craft products from these countries and to convey specific values. Each of these products will be the starting point for conducting craft workshops for young people based on its theme. A website compiling three different handicraft methods products with values, local culture and youth view will encourage the creation and conducting of workshops. For those more involved, a second result will be prepared, which, in the light of a transparent tutorial, 10 lessons on the handicraft methodology with young people, will constitute a textbook of non-formal work with young people for various educators. Educators will also take part in training using handicrafts as a method of working with youth in a non-formal way. Trained educators will implement the results during local workshops with young people. The results will be disseminated as part of local youth meetings with handicrafts and 3 international handicraft festivals: in Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. The project results will increase youth interest in handicrafts and incorporate these methods into non-formal education.
The aim of the project was to save crafts, handicrafts and declining professions from oblivion. Folk arts and crafts, from which modern techniques are derived, occupy a special place in the history and life of each nation, being a specific branch of its material and spiritual legacy. Crafts and old arts are the subject of national prestige and widely recognized contribution of each of the partnership countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia) to the world cultural heritage. Its preservation, revival and development for future generations is an idea that guided us at every stage of the project. An important aspect of the project is to improve social cohesion by including young people in intergenerational integration and taking care of the continuity of transferred competences, skills and traditions, and thus values.
Promotion of handicrafts, both as a form of cultural education and creating new opportunities for professional development for young people, should become part of education and the educational system. Crafts, crafts and so-called vanishing professions used to be the domain of dynamic vocational education. Today, unfortunately, its influence in society, the scale of its impact, and above all its size in relation to the rest of the sector, do not allow it to continue to play this role. The proposed project used grassroots movements and youth trends (DIY, slow life, zero waste, etc.) to re-promote handicrafts, in the context of both professional work and cultural values.