Heritage Empowering and Learning Platforms

The ‘Heritage Empowering and Learning Platforms’ project has successfully been completed.

This project, characterized by the co-creation process with a wide range of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the three cities, has yielded in the production of four educational models inspired by the Kurcaj Bridge in Kruja, the Ethnographic Museums in Kruja and Kavaja, and the Bashtova Castle in Rrogozhinë.

A dedicated team of illustrators, authors of children’s books, subject-matter experts, educationalists, communication specialists, and heritage interpretation experts, pinned together by the coordinating team of CHwB Albania, enabled the creation of these four educational models.

This remarkable creation process, spread over several stages, blended together experts’ input, local knowledge and illustrator’s talent. This was achieved also thanks to a series of combined consultative and training workshops for local stakeholders (9 in total) that took place in each of the project venues. The workshops enabled local stakeholders to develop a significant sense of ownership over the models, and paved the way for their further engagement in the project.

The project was concluded with the promotion of the educational models during 3 launching events, organized in Kavaja, Kruja and Rrogozhina. These events hosted a significant number of children, pedagogical staff, stakeholders, partners and citizens who were gathered together to celebrate and explore the newly created educational models. See more of the launching events here.

Despite culminating in the creation of 4 educational models to be used by educators and local cultural professionals alike, the project yielded a simple, flexible, and easily-applicable methodology and the engaged stakeholders benefited from the created experience. For this reason, more than 90% of the circulation of the booklets produced was distributed to the project stakeholders, aiming for a sustained use of these models beyond the closure of the project. Overall, more than 710 participants attended the events in the three project cities.

The project “Heritage Empowering and Learning Platforms”, is funded by the European Union. Funding was provided through the EU4Culture program, implemented by UNOPS Albania and in coordination with the Ministry of Culture.

The four educational models created on behalf of the HELP project are accessible online and can be reached by following the links below:
Kurçaj Bridge: Kurcaj_web
Castle of Bashtova: Bashtova_web
Ethnographic Museum of Kruja: Book_Kruja_web
Ethnographic Museum of Kavaja: Book_Kavaja_web