While the trajectory of the pandemic varies across countries, youth NGOs expressed greatest concern about the impact of COVID-19 on mental well-being, disruptions to education and culture, familial relations and friendships, as well as limitations to individual freedoms according to the 2020 OECD Survey on COVID-19 and Youth. Drastic changes to our routines during pandemic times have forced us to alter our social habits and re-evaluate our relationships and our place in the community. Over the past year, the extended lack of physical face-to-face communication made us realise how valuable social and group interactions can be. Therefore, Xano Channel and 6 Youth NGOs have explored together the options, mechanics and dynamics that could be used to maintain some semblance of human contact and decrease loneliness, facilitating greater social engagement and came to the following conclusion: as our isolation grows by the day, games could be key in reducing loneliness and fostering a sense of connection among youth. Both indoor and outdoor games could offer the necessary dynamics for youth to learn, grow, socialize and remain mentally and physically fit in times characterised by insufficient activity levels and sedentary behaviour. According to the WHO’s Physical activity strategy for the EU Region 2016–2025, performing various types of physical activities can be not only an effective way of promoting mental health and well-being, but can also contribute to the treatment of mental health conditions, which are statistically proven to be on the raise for all age groups. In particular, as stated by the Policy Department of the European Parliament for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life, the segment of YP aged 18-28 is at high-risk of developing poor mental health, due to higher employment and income insecurity since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to improving mental wellbeing among youth, another need addressed by the project is the need to better preserve and safeguard our European intangible cultural heritage. In this sense, traditional games represent an important part of the world’s recreational cultural heritage and a symbol of the cultural diversity of our societies. Traditional games provide a reliable framework for enjoyable play, as well as opportunities for creativity and exploration and are an efficient means for conveying values of solidarity, diversity, inclusiveness, cultural awareness and better mutual understanding at international level, acting as a bridge between different cultures and beliefs. In 2019, with the implementation of the European project “TIK: Tradition and Innovation @Kindergarten (TIK), Xano Channel was able to be in touch with young people that were really interested in the subject, that was well connected to this project, collaborating together to in a common reflection on traditional tales, as a reference to promote integration and mutual understanding and enhancing the interaction between different groups as to develop cognitive skills. Furthermore, through a G-Form applied among 241 YP 18-25 y.o. from 6 European countries, we have discovered that most young people are interested in promoting their childhood games through new media tools and campaigns and want to activelycontribute to their preservation by designing new features and dynamics to make them more attractive to the newer generations. This project represented the initiative of 6 youth NGOs and its main aim was to use traditional games as a tool for generating non-formal educational experiences in order to connect young people through folk games as a solution to overcome the emotional negative effects of the pandemic as well as to preserve the intangible European cultural heritage. The specific objectives of the project were: O1: To create one playground (mobility for YP) in September 2022 which encouraged 42 young people from 7 European countries to revive national folk games and preserve the European cultural heritage, while enhancing their emotional wellbeing. O2: To promote solidarity, emotional wellbeing, human connection and the preservation of the European cultural heritage by organising 6 local game tournaments with European folk games for 210 participants, during “European Folk Games Day” in October 2022. O3: To design with the participants the European digital library “Folk Games 2.0” with more than 60 revived European folk games from all over the EU space and beyond dedicated to “playful” European citizens and education professionals who want to create sustainable playgrounds by November 2022. O4: To encourage more than 350 European young people to join the movement “Play it forward! Save the folk games” and contribute to the effort of preserving the folk games by expanding and promoting the collection of the digital library “Folk Games 2.0” on all digital platforms.