Youth for the Territory

Youth for the Territory is a Call for Proposals prepared by the Emilia-Romagna Region through IBC – Institute of Cultural Heritage (currently Heritage Service of the Culture Sector of the Emilia-Romagna Region). Now in its 5th edition in 2020, the call is subtitled “Culture that Heals,” to capture the sensitivity of the times we are going through. Youth for the Territory saw the participation of thirty-six Associations of which only nine were selected to win the prize of 10 thousand euros to be invested in projects to enhance and care for cultural and environmental heritage.

The winning associations are supported by a group of “trainers/activators” – in the role of mentors –  whose task is to follow, direct and train the young associations in the implementation of their project. This group consists of the expert mentors from Amygdala, who are in charge of monitoring the different stages of development of individual projects, starting from an analysis of objectives to the development of different project phases, through training sessions, individual meetings with each working group, sharing of tools and evaluation of project outcomes.
In addition to technical monitoring, Amigdala provides the associations involved with its wealth of expertise in the areas of culturally-based urban regeneration, networking skills and community involvement, historicity and durability of cultural projects as well as instrumental skills related to the areas of administration, participation, cultural heritage enhancement, communication and organizational team and project management.

“The goal posed by the Call for Proposals was the care and enhancement of cultural and environmental assets in a time of social restrictions, of necessary changes in community life that should not make us forget how important it is to care for ourselves and the area in which we live. How do we take care of our cultural heritage, our scenic beauty, our works of art? What new forms of sociability, of sharing the enjoyment of culture can we bring to bear? […] Young people, gathered in associations, were invited to explore their own territory and renew it by devising new paths of knowledge, care, and enhancement of cultural and environmental heritage. The Call was intended to be an opportunity for the creation of a new community alphabet in the management and enhancement of cultural heritage and landscape.

Youth associations were invited to join in partnership with an entity that owns a cultural or environmental asset to present an innovative project to manage and enhance the asset. It is the young people who are the real protagonists, those who are working personally to realize new forms and new solutions to manage, communicate and transmit the social value of heritage. This provided an opportunity to realize a path of creativity that stimulates the concept of active citizenship and connects a virtuous system of social and cultural relations.

The nine Associations that presented the selected projects have defined a credible and sustainable path for the enhancement of the asset, given to them by the partner entities, thanks also to the involvement of social and institutional “networks” involved in the project, among them, in particular, the presence of the Centers for Education for Sustainability (CEAS) of the Emilia-Romagna Region (R.L. 27/2009), real territorial garrisons that have been carrying out educational work, training and development of forms of environmental sustainability for years.”

Source and more information on the Youth for the Territory call at this
link