Of all the heartbreaking effects of COVID-19, its impact on young people could prove to be one of its most damaging legacies. Although the impact varies from individual to individual, youth organizations have been the ones that expressed greatest concern about the effects of the long periods of isolation on the mental well-being of youngsters. These concerns were also being supported by the Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Department of the European Parliament, which officially stated that 18-30 is a high-risk group age of developing poor mental health, due to higher levels of employment and income insecurity since the outbreak of the pandemic. Besides contributing to the improvement of mental well-being among young people, the project “Youth Playground” addressed as well the growing need to maintain and safeguard our European intangible cultural heritage and an important, but often overlooked, component of this intangible heritage are our childhood games. Traditional games are part of our intangible heritage and a symbol of the cultural diversity of our societies. Moreover, traditional games reflect the deep social roots of different cultural expressions and help build bridges between cultures for better mutual understanding by promoting values such as solidarity, honesty, open-mindedness, acceptance and respect. Therefore, playing traditional games can help young people connect with their roots and identities and become better and more active European citizens. Unfortunately, traditional games, a common childhood memory of many generations of European people, are gradually fading in modern society. Many folk games are fading away due to social changes, technological development, urbanization and modernization. In this sense, at the beginning of 2021, while taking part in a project focused on finding solutions to reconnect the rural population and strengthening the spirit of the community at European level, Benedek Bernadette, a core member of the organisation, together with Caristi Emanuel from Italy and Alina Dumitru from Romania sketched the idea of the “Youth Playground” project. When they arrived back to their local communities, they applied an online questionnaire applied among 263 youngsters aged between 18-30 y.o. from 6 European countries and the results showed that an overwhelming majority of the respondents value their heritage and are willing to promote, but don’t know in what ways they can proactively be engaged in this process. Furthermore, the youngsters who took part in the survey showed great interest and enthusiasm in regards to the idea of promoting their beloved childhood games through digital means and online campaigns and want to actively contribute to their preservation by getting involved in this project. Furthermore, 87% of the respondents stated that the long period of time spent mainly indoors had a negative impact on their emotional and physical wellbeing, therefore considering that “Youth Playground” is a great opportunity for youngsters to reconnect with each other to overcome these challenges. To summarize, in order to overcome the negative emotional effects generated by the pandemic on all aged groups, but especially on the segment of young people aged 18-30, as well as to preserve and promote the intangible European cultural heritage and core European values, 6 youth NGOs from all over Europe developed the project “Youth Playground”, a project that used European traditional games as a tool for generating non-formal educational experiences. The “Youth Playground” project has met the following specific objectives: SO1: To build, in July 2022, one “playground” in the form of youth mobility using traditional games to bring together 30 young people from 6 European countries, teach them to cherish and promote their cultural heritage and European values while also improving their emotional wellbeing through physical activities. SO2: To launch the European online platform “European Youth Playground” which hosts more than 30 traditional games from all over the European space, dedicated to “playful” European citizens and education professionals who want to create sustainable “playgrounds”. SO3: To organize 6 local game marathons titled “Youth Playdates” for more than 120 Europeans of all ages, in August 2022, to promote unity, emotional well-being, interpersonal relations, the protection of European cultural heritage while also promoting the digital platform “European Youth Playground” and the Erasmus+ Programme. SO4: To start a digital awareness campaign on Instagram that reached at least 200 young people from all over Europe meant to help preserve the traditional games and to act as an invitation for young people and other Youth or cultural NGOs to take action and to start the dialogue with the younger generation, find a common ground and understand in which ways, channels and practices the young people are engaged better with cultural heritage.