It is believed that the cultural heritage of one’s nation is like a tree, deeply engraved into earth’s surface with roots extending ever so majestically to withstand the fluctuations and hardships of the time. 
Heritage is the identity of a nation, for it comprises the critical features such as the values, legacy, and ethics that a nation possesses.

Even though the European Union is often portrayed as one entity, one must not forget the poly-dimensional, authentic characteristics of each one of its multi-ethnic nations. For instance, Greece, being one of Europe’s most ancient territories, has an endless surplus of cultural heritage prospects, with antiquity extending to eons of astounding, well-documented history. On the one hand, with globalization challenging the cultural individuality of nations, Hellas phenomenally persists being a paradigm of preserving its cultural heritage until this very day. On the other hand, re-introducing the youths of Greek society to their heritage is a challenge, which we ought to tackle independently. With cities morphing to cosmopolitan constructs ever so rapidly, it is now a necessity to understand and emphasize the importance of the aforementioned matter. As a result, the European Union has opened a dialogue encouraging countries all over the continent to increase their cultural heritage engagement through the support of activities, programs, funded projects, and councils ¹.

One of the aforementioned projects is 25 by 25; an Erasmus+ funded project aiming to support and encourage young people aged 15 to 21 years old to increase their interaction with cultural activities and experiences. Although ITML is one of the partners representing the project in Greece, its consortium involves 6 other partner organisations from six countries: Aspire-igen Group (UK), CESIE (Italy), Dramblys (Spain), FDCBPCS (Bulgaria), Hellenic Youth Participation (Greece), and Youth Bridges Budapest (Hungary). Each partner striving to engage local youths, aged from 15 to 21 years old, and vulnerable NEET/ migrant youths of their society with an innovative, ground-breaking approach.

“25 by 25” objectives can be demonstrated in increasing accessibility to existing cultural heritage, extending the involvement of excluded youths in cultural heritage initiatives, and instilling a strong message of “25 by 25” amongst youths and youth workers. The project will develop a matrix of European cultural activities for youths to help them achieve the goal of learning and developing their skills and knowledge through 25 meaningful cultural experiences by the age of 25 years old. It will also develop a place-based cultural curriculum framework which will allow anyone to create a cultural learning module about their town or city.

The transnational dimension of the 25 by 25 project will be strengthened through the peer-learning and peer exchange element of the 25 by 25 Digital Platform. This will allow the beneficiaries to understand the different cultural manifestations of the wider European Union, through knowledge of the diverse range of shared European cultural heritage.

During the project’s lifecycle, ITML will be mainly responsible for developing the project’s final intellectual output (the 25 by 25 digital platform), which integrates the outcomes of the first and second pilots into a repository and skills portfolio with youths, and youth workers/organizations. On the other hand, we will be supporting our national partner to conduct research on national, regional, and local levels related to the best practices devoted to raise the awareness/engagement of youths in cultural heritage experiences.

We, at ITML, welcome the engagement of as many stakeholders as possible, to get a better glimpse of how the final product will be utilized amongst users. The official project phases we invite you to participate in and contribute to are:

• Piloting Phase 1: April, May, and June 2021 – The project will pilot the Handbook on Best Practices in Cultural Activity Engagement with Youth Workers and Youth Organizations
• Piloting Phase 2: January to April 2022 – The project will pilot the Matrix of Cultural Activities, the associated ‘25 by 25 Handbook’ for Youths and the initial draft of the Framework for a Place-Based Curriculum with both youths, and youth workers/organizations.
• Piloting Phase 3: September to December 2022 – The consortium will pilot the 6 place-based curriculums and the 25 by 25 digital platform, including the repository and skills portfolio with youths, and youth workers/organizations.

[1]https://ec.europa.eu/culture/policies/selected-themes/cultural-heritage