We started this project believing the craft sector is important both for the preservation of local culture and heritage, contributing to the uniqueness of the regions, regional appeal to its visitors, inhabitants and to the regional economy as a source of local employment, and social and economic stability and European countries have long traditions and culture of crafts. Today, the crafts sector in general in the EU faces several important problems, such as the strong global competition of cheaper products; loss of old skills and traditions; difficulties of getting into the markets; losing the customer appeal of traditional crafts' products; (lack of financial resources and economic capacity, and the most dangerous of all, the new generations don’t recognize it as something valuable. Therefore, our partnership at the beginning of the project set the two overall objectives: raising awareness of the cultural heritage of each partner country and emphasizing the importance of the craft industry in the European Union, raising the question of its importance in the economy and development of each project partner region. Moreover, the specific objectives of the project were: 1) To learn from each other about the ways of promoting traditional crafts among adults via crafts workshops 2) To exchange the possible ways for improving and extending the supply of high-quality learning opportunities in the art craft, tailored to the specific needs of individual adults 3) To raise educators' competences in teaching students traditional crafts by exchanging practice from 4 different countries 4) To disseminate the project results and raise awareness among all target groups – adult students, policy, and decision-makers at regional, national, and EU-levels, craftsmen and craft sector stakeholders, and general public thus raising awareness about each partner’s cultural identity.All these objectives set at the beginning of the projects were met until the end of the project. The participants that took part in the project were 60 employees of four participating organizations,30 teachers/ trainers from four countries, and 233 students who attended art craft courses from four partner organizations. Apart from the Transnational project meetings which we used for good practice exchange, the other activities we undertook were desk research about all topics relevant to the project, conducted surveys among teachers and students, collected testimonies among students, and a list of recommendations on all relevant topics. The list of recommendations will be available on web pages of all partner institutions and useful to all stakeholders interested in cultural heritage, its promotion, craft sector, and its importance.The results of the project are good practice exchange about the ways of promoting cultural heritage through art crafts, learning from the experience of four partner organizations about marketing strategies that we use in order to make art crafts visible, raised competences of our teachers/trainers about teaching about cultural heritage through art crafts, and the good practice exchange about tailor-made programs for specific groups of students.- The impact we succeeded in is the most visible in the:- higher awareness of participants, participating organizations, target groups and relevant stakeholders of the importance of preserving the cultural heritage, in the European context- getting knowledge of the ways and techniques of promoting cultural heritage through art workshops- practitioners now aware of the possibilities in teaching about cultural heritage- practitioners acknowledged themselves as valuable contributors to the general culture.The special impact the project has made on participants who have some educational or geographic difficulties, or some kind of physical impairment or unemployed people. They will be given the possibility to attend these craft workshops designed to suit their needs and requirements. It can bring both higher competitiveness on the labor market and a sense of self-confidence in acquiring new skills and learning about the cultural heritage in the same way.Longer/term benefits for all four partner organizations are better educational offers, more skillful teachers/trainers, quality programs, and above all better awareness of different ways of promoting cultural heritage as a way of keeping each country's identity and as a reminder to the future generations of their own past.

<< Background >>In recent years, there has been a focus on that not all young people follow the flow towards the larger cities, and that there is a need to focus on the young people for whom rural life is an option. For those who choose to stay and for those who return after having ended their study, it may be a culture shock, as the present rural culture is based on other forms of relationships and traditions than those conveyed by the media and displaced friends. Studies from Netherlands and Denmark show that the youth have difficulties finding their own room for developing and participating in cultural life. Arlie Hochschild has shown how the feeling of one's values being accepted, included, and taken seriously is important for the cohesion of society. These tendencies point to the need to systematically support the creation of a youth culture that can find its place in the already established more traditionally based rural culture. The Salto Youth Strategy produces a similar conclusion of the importance for the youth to have their own space, for enhancing their participation in democratic processes. Ex-ante need analysis in the three participating countries shows that cultural workers lack knowledge on what characterizes young people’s cultural interest, and what different age groups demand. They lack insight into tools to ensure innovative involvement, and that not only the most resourceful youth with a mainstream cultural interest participate. Cultural institutions recognize that cultural activities contribute to young people's identity shaping, belonging, and anchoring. There is no continuous dialogue between cultural institutions and young people as initiatives do not capture the perspectives of young people. Professionals working with youth would like to give youth more ownership of their own cultural development. In addition, they want to introduce forms of culture to the youth that they do not meet via home or school, e.g., strengthening the relationship with their region via the local museum. Difficult issues for professionals are related to the discrepancy between local customs and the stimulation of new cultural expressions. R YOUCULT takes the starting point suggested in important European wide goals and strategies for: a) The EU funded Voices of Culture report, which states that although culture cannot solve all the problems in non-urban areas, it is a change-maker as we know from many (difficult) urban quarters. b) The EU New Culture Strategy, which on the social dimension of culture states the importance of harnessing the power of culture and cultural diversity for social cohesion and well-being and supporting the cultural capability of all Europeans by making available a wide range of cultural activities and providing opportunities to participate actively. c) The 11 European Youth Goals 2019-2027, especially Goal 3 Inclusive Societies, Goal 6 Moving Rural Youth Forward and Goal 9 Space and Participation for All.<< Objectives >>The objectives of R YOUCULT is to develop and design a universal high-quality training program for cultural workers in rural municipalities and rural cultural institution in the EU. The training program should provide the cultural workers with core competences to facilitate processes that can lead to the anchoring and building of a dynamic rural youth culture with their own room as an integrated space in their home rural area. R YOUCULT suggests an innovative framework for quality training of cultural workers as a central action. for meeting these political aims. Such suggestion follows up on the structured dialogue among experts in the cultural sectors and recommendation in the Voices of Culture report. Here it is stated that there is a lack of cross-generational cooperation and intergenerational dialogue and that formal cultural training programs and education do not target mobilization of this group.<< Implementation >>R YOUCULT is methodologically based on citizen-based research and co-creation between young people, cultural workers, regional partners, and university teachers. This will lead to an easier and more successful implementation and achievement of the objective. The project includes the following activities:Transnational project meeting 1 is the kick-to-start transnational meeting secures all partners a solid ground, an effective communication platform and transparency. Project result 1 the local need analysis and the local pilot testing of course material is co-created with young people and cultural workers. The innovative method design for the local need analysis gives the rural young people a voice and lays the ground for the delivering the objective of facilitating young people a room of their own. A desk-research of local rural youth policies provides insights needed for addressing policy recommendation on cultural workers improved competences for reaching out to young people in rural areas. Multiplier event 1-3 are three local seminars with invited teachers/ researcher and cultural actors will introduce the environment to the R YOUCULT and secure that knowledge about R YOUCULT can be spread so that cultural institutions can begin considering enrolling their cultural workers when it is fully developed Transnational project meeting 2 for developing the framework for the universal high-quality R YOUCULT training program: This activity is central for moving from the local perspective to the transnational perspective and support the objective that the high-quality R YOUCULT training course will be universal. Project result 2 is the testing universal program. The national testing of the universal R YOUCULT training course supports the objective that the program should have a high-quality. The learning, teaching, and training activities 1-3 Is a part of the testing and it supports the objective that the program should have a high-quality and that leaners should be able to catch in local as well as universal perspectives. Transnational project meeting 3 will merge the universities results from evaluations from pilot testing the R YOUCULT training material and courses with the findings from impact evaluations. This lay the ground for highly qualified policy recommendation that could support the objective of supporting cultural workers in rural areas in the EU in having improved competences for reaching out to young people in rural areas. Project result 3 follows up on the transnational meeting 3 and will formulate precise and highly qualified policy recommendations at the local, regional and EU level that could support the objective of supporting cultural workers in rural areas in the EU in having improved competences for reaching out to young people in rural areas. Multiplier event 4 will spread information about R YOUCULT in more EU countries. It will inspire suppliers high-quality training courses to integrate the R YOUCULT training course in their teaching program portfolio and it will inspire more cultural institutions to integrate the policy recommendation in their rural and youth politics.<< Results >>The R YOUCULT project has three main project results. 1) The results of the three local need analysis will be three pilot tested local course material that are developed in collaboration with the future learners and rural young people who are learner's final the target group. Also, a manual that describe step-by-step the involvement of cultural workers and young people by on-line deliberative polls and workshops is an outcome from the need analysis. 2) The results of the transnational analysis of the three local need analysis together with the testing of transnational course material results in a R YOUCULT high quality universal training course material. The material is innovative by being developed with the specific learning elements inbuild that makes it capable of approaching the very local rural conditions and in a combination with the European conditions for young people in rural areas. 3) The three regional partners will discuss the findings at each region, compare and identify eventual differences. They will share learnings on how they themselves at the regional level approach young people and discuss obstacles. The discussion will lead to a common baseline which at the end of the project implementation will be used in the development of policy recommendations to other European regions. The R YOUCULT develops universal high-quality training course. Cultural workers having participated in the pilot testing of the training course will have deeper understanding of the rural youth and their way of creating their own room for cultural activities and events. They will know how to identify different forms and manifestation of youth culture in rural areas. They will have improved their competences in reaching out to young people in rural areas and encourage cultural initiatives initiated by the youth and they will know how to facilitate a dynamic cultural environment for rural young people in various locations in their home country and abroad. Rural cultural institutions and municipalities having be involved in R YOUCULT will have a catalog of good practices and well-grounded policy recommendations that will improve their capability to follow up on the EU New Culture Strategy and to meet at minimum three of the 11 European Youth Goal: Goal 3 Inclusive societies, Goal 6 Moving Rural Youth Forward and Goal 9 Space and Participation for All and they will have more competent and satisfied employed cultural workers. Rural young people having participated in the deliberative online poll and the rural young people having been involved in the need analysis and the multiplier events will have experienced that they have a voice in developing a dynamic rural youth culture and that they will be supported in creating a cultural room of their own. They will have experienced that participation gives influence. They will be inspired and motivated to initiate rural youth cultural events. Rural development/rural communities having young people involved in the R YOUCULT project will experience a more active youth culture, claiming the right to have their own space as an integrated in the rural community culture. The rural communities will experience a new rural – urban dynamic, because rural youth events will attract some of the young people having moved to the cities and because the rural youth events initiated by the rural youth them self will take urban trends up and transform them to a rural setting.

The main aim of the project BRIDGING is to improve the quality of the practices in early childhood education through participation of children, educators and cultural staff in artistic projects in public spaces, helping young children and adults to become active European citizens, fostering creativity, collaboration, and communication. The reason and need for the project comes from the fact that societies are becoming increasingly diverse and educators need new tools to acknowledge such diversity in a way that is aligned with European values, contributing to active citizenship and democratic, inclusive, social cohesive societies. Essential to BRIDGING is the strong collaboration between and within each country, involving not only school settings, but also cultural institutions and universities. The collaboration between children, the educational settings and the multiple spaces of the city, within and across countries, will facilitate new ways of looking, thinking and acting upon the local and global urban environment. Based on an action-research design methodology, several cycles of inquiry, inquiry-search, exploration-registration, and dissemination will be carried out collaboratively, both outside and inside schools, using art and digital tools as a means of exploration and communication. The use of arts and ICT aims to help inspire and expand young children’s horizons contributing to open minded and positive reflection upon differences and diversities. The exploration of their own city and other’s cities will help children to develop knowledge and attitudes related to European citizenship likely to influence lifelong learning skills. Interdisciplinary collaboration between the different international partners intends to support the cross-fertilization of different discourses (education, arts, music, sociology, psychology and architecture) that can allow a rich, effective, and intentional operationalization of the educational process of all those involved, leading to high-quality practices. As a result, BRIDGING intends to give children and adults multiple opportunities to be more engaged as citizens using arts and digital tools as privileged tools for share and communicate, with a positive impact on professionals, families and children’s development, learning, and wellbeing.