Pride of Place

The project ’Pride of Place’ (PoP) is aiming at developing an up-to-date and sustainable concept for an educational opportunity for seondary education pupils in rural areas aged 12-16 that is unique in the purpose of raising awareness on the importance of development of Pride of Place. PoP is the sense of pride one feels for the place one lives in and/or comes from, it is a product of other characteristics (place identiy, cultural identity, place attachment) that make up part of the emotional bond someone has with this place. Teaching cultural heritage on a local level is an essential part of increasing Pride of Place. Moreover the project is aiming at developing a parallel curriculum for teachers able to support and increase pupils 21st century competences while promoting and enhancing PoP. The project intends to create a publication on the relevance of the PoP for rural development and for the empowerment of young people and consequently for the empowerment of the rural communities - O1 -; an educational program of 10-14 weeks (2/3 hours weekly) for secondary teachers supporting the development of PoP in rural youth - O2 -; a training course for secondary teachers/educators/trainers in rural areas O3. As part of the activities for the realization of the educational program a testing phase will be carried out in the 5 partners countries involving more than 200 young people (12-16Y). Two training courses will be run, C1 addressed to the staff in charge of implementing the project and developing the project results, C2 to teachers/educators aiming at increasing the PoP through working with O2. The whole concept will be piloted with 18 individuals in joint staff positions for the length of the project and another 26 youth workers involved in training; along with this the activities will be piloted during 6 national multiplier events in Italy (2x), turkey, Portugal, Ireland and the Netherlands. The parntership is a collaboration between two universities, two NGO´s and two school institutions. The Stichting Anatta Foundation is the lead partner of the 26 months project, with the 5 partners Sapienza University (Italy), Akdeniz University (Turkey), Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne Teo (Ireland), Agrupamento de Escolas n.º 1 de Gondomar (Portugual) and Istituto Comprensivo Cortemilia -Saliceto (Italy). The project results will be accessible through the School Education Gateway, a new project website and through the information channels of the partner organizations.