About
Yet, the oversees territories features real cultural assets to European cultural heritage and are hot-spots for cultural exchange. The Reunion island is a melting pot of cultures due to the populations from Africa, Madagascar, Asia and Europe, which creates an astonishing cultural diversity. We think cultural heritage is not only a legacy from the past. It also helps us forge the way ahead and design our future, in a closer cooperation between the youth living in the mainland and those from overseas territories.
The project YouthInHerit is designed to answer two main questions: 1. In what ways do young people engage with urban and rural heritage? 2. How can this engagement be used to develop a better understanding of the relationship between young people and historic and cultural places from mainland and overseas territories integrated in European Union?”
YouthInHerit - the cultural expedition of 30 young Europeans to La Reunion
30 young Europeans participate between June 4-12, 2021, in an international exchange on cultural heritage and backpack journalism, organized by the organization Au Carrefour de L’Europe. The YouthInHerit project is designed as a context for learning and reflection on the discovery, conservation, and promotion of cultural heritage in Europe and the overseas territories. The project is co-financed by the European Union's Erasmus + program.
The European Union has a special cooperation with 25 territories under the responsibility of France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Denmark. France alone has 13 overseas territories that host about 2.6 million people. The YouthInHerit project is dedicated to young Europeans from Romania, France, Bulgaria, Italy, and Spain, and encourages them to get involved, understand the potential of this heritage, and promote the hidden, lesser known or forgotten cultural elements of European overseas territories, especially Reunion, where the youth exchange takes place.
"Backpack journalism is a powerful learning tool for young people. The digital tools needed for young people to start becoming creators of journalistic content about cultural heritage are minimal, accessible, and easily fit in a backpack: a video camera, portable editing software, a laptop, a smartphone connected to the internet. During the mobility, the 30 young people attending, without the training of professional journalists, learn to use these modern tools to increase the level of awareness and involvement of locals regarding the conservation of European cultural heritage: tangible, intangible and natural.", said Daniel Enăchescu, President of Au Carrefour de L'Europe.
During the 9 days, participants will develop new key skills such as cultural awareness and expression, digital skills and active citizenship and will share concrete ways to protect, conserve, promote and discover cultural heritage. The skills and abilities acquired during the YouthInHerit mobility will be reflected in the International Youthpass certificate that the participants will receive at the end.
During the activities, they will discover how to write thematic digital stories about local traditions, customs, and culture, build a digital herbarium to promote the flora of the island of La Reunion, create a collection of traditional games from the 6 European territories and launch “Youth4Heritage” awareness campaign through the YouthInHerit Instagram page. Non-formal activities and workshops during the youth exchange will result in an online platform on which the materials made by the participants will be uploaded under the guidance of the team coordinators from each country, as well as the formation of a European network of young people specialized in backpack journalism and cultural journalism.
YouthInHerit is a project implemented between 1.10.2020 - 31.07.2021, coordinated by Au Carrefour de L'Europe, in partnership with European organizations Friend's Society Humanitarian Foundation (Romania), Mine Vaganti NGO (Italy), Social HUB Association (Bulgaria ), Euducate (Spain).
The Association Au Carrefour de L'Europe is a non-profit youth organization that proposes projects and civic interventions specific to education in a non-formal context, on the topics: cultural heritage, sports, active citizenship, environmental protection, development of key skills of young people and workers of youth. The organization is active in France and its overseas territories, especially in Reunion.