HEritage Valorization for small local COmmunities

"How to ""use"" cultural heritage to build cohesion and identity and how to ""exploit"" it in more innovative ways than we do today, to ""make"" the economy? What steps need to be taken? "". These are the questions that inspired the HE.CO project. Cultural heritage represents a dynamic reality, since it is a non-definitive whole, in constant growth. This includes the discovery and continuous acquisition of data and materials, as well as artistic and expressive experiments of our times. This dynamism must follow the continuous updating also of operators, officials and all administrative staff who work mainly in small centers which have to deal with limited resources and often poor visibility. Reactivating an ""economy of unexpressed beauty"" could generate additional turnover in these municipalities for 1.6 billion euros and generate 30,000 new work units. The web can certainly play a decisive role, offering museums, libraries and even administrations great communication possibilities, provided that a communication strategy is developed that is consistent with the mission of the bodies involved and that make use of all the tools at its disposal, from the website to social channels, to online platforms. If this happens, even a small museum with great ideas can build a very strong digital identity, not only to communicate with its audience, but also to involve it, thus fulfilling its most important mission. On the occasion of the 2018 European Year dedicated to Cultural Heritage, through the HE.CO project, ANCI Lazio intends to promote a path for museum system operators, local officials and administrators (in particular from small centers), aimed at promoting knowledge and the acquisition of skills and best practices for the enhancement of the vast cultural heritage spread over its territory. Effective valorisation can not only rely on the availability of the ""raw material"" (tangible, intangible, natural goods), but must provide and work on the issues of economic and management sustainability. This is why programming is important, as it is the development of an integrated, or systemic, use of the cultural, environmental and tourism resources of the territory. Despite the vast wealth of which Lazio has, this does not always go hand in hand with the knowledge, skills and tools available to those responsible. Other times it happens that such knowledge, skills and tools must be updated and compared with what is done in other geographical contexts with perhaps the same characteristics and / or the same needs. From the analysis of the other geographical contexts we have realized the diversity with which the topic is dealt with in different countries and for this reason the present project was born. The main advantages achieved through the HE.CO project will be: - development of better skills and abilities for operators, officials and administrators of the sector for the development of strategies to be put into practice in the enhancement of the local cultural heritage; - possibility for participants (and cascading for the different entities involved) to get in touch with different European realities (local administrations, associations, museums) that already carry out projects and promote initiatives dedicated to the enhancement of local heritage and establish a lasting network for collaboration; - encourage the Europeanization process of small centers through a better knowledge of the ERAMSUS + program and other funding programs, aimed at increasing the participation of small centers in the opportunities offered by Europe. Results of the project will be: - analysis and sharing of good practices at European level between the various countries involved, collected in an electronic publication for dissemination in the form of Guidelines; - n. 5 transnational meetings in mobility between the different countries involved for the realization of study visits, meetings with experts, etc .; - definition, based on the good practices collected and the study visits, of an international training course dedicated to operators and officials of the administrations that can be realized within the project itself. The short-term impact that the HE.CO project intends to achieve refers primarily to the local / regional context in which each of the partners operates and which aims to overcome the main difficulties encountered to date in terms of enhancing the cultural heritage in the field economic, social, cultural and functional. In the long run, however, the impact of the project will be evident in the decision-making process of the regional and national policies of the cultural system."