The cultural heritage sector is at a crossroads. The boost of digitalisation and technology are the
ultimate solutions for new approaches to engage citizens with cultural heritage.

Digital storytelling enables unprecedented forms of engagement and opens up new spaces for
educational contexts to explore collaborative forms to understand, preserve and engage with
cultural heritage. E-learning tools promote access to cultural content in homes, schools and
universities, and allow people to generate, reuse and add value to content, enhancing the value of
tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Still, education in cultural heritage is commonly
perceived as discipline-bound, unidirectional and academic, not consistent with the Universal
Design for Learning Guidelines (CAST 2018), which favors a learner-centric approach catering the
needs of all learners. Accessibility and inclusion are crucial concepts in cultural heritage for
achieving the CRPD (2006), and the UN Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).

“Young ArcHers” is an Erasmus+ project that tackles climate change, it helps to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and boosts research and innovation in educational environments at a local, regional and international level. The project proposes a mindset shift in education advocating the use of cultural heritage, as a valuable tool for educators to create inclusive and accessible digital storytelling content for promoting intercultural dialog and social inclusion.

“Young ArcHers” intends to offer efficient and accessible interdisciplinary tools to support teachers in incentivizing students, including children with disabilities, and those originating from socio-culturally diverse backgrounds, to discover the value of their local built heritage, use digital technology to consolidate new knowledge, and engage in the promotion and protection of heritage buildings through local and international awareness campaigns.

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• Western Europe and North America

• Youth

“Young ArcHers” is expected to offer tools and open source online materials for different agents involved in the educational environment enabling them . These materials will allow all agents involved in the education environment to acquire new knowledge, exchange on good practices, familiarise with inclusion/accessibility methods in education and culture, strengthen and enrich their working tools, as well as consolidate their existing networks and create new ones, by bringing together more actors around a common topic.

YoungArcHers project partners collaborate with a broad network of voluntary-sector organizations and communities, including those with fewer opportunities, and people with disabilities. Voluntary-sector organisations which participate as associated partners with its members across the EU, are also pooling their resources to ensure sufficient engagement at a suitable level of these target audiences. The results designed for this project can be helpful for teaching professionals from any background who wish to help sharpen/develop the higher order thinking skills of their students, without having to be experts in the field of Architecture. The project also aims to target: 1) local, national and educational centres and institutions, including NGOs, focused on the provision of non-formal education and would like to enhance their activities with engaging, fun, digitized, inclusive and accessible activities. 2) staff from the Architectural and related departments of Universities, 3) Teacher training centres, Institutions/ policymakers, 4) Education stakeholders, 5) National and international policymakers and public institutions which carry the responsibility to formulate policies interwoven with the modernisation of the School Sector/Education.