KA220 LIVING LANDMARKS – Youth Participation in Biocultural Heritage Sites

Enhancing Youth Wellbeing, Sense of Identity, and Connection through Places of Biocultural Heritage in European Landscapes
#nature #leisure #innovation #wellbeing #mentalhealth #innerexperience #art #culture #sustainabletourism #europeanidentity #sharedvalues

Background and Rationale
Across Europe, there is a growing interest - particularly among young people - in experiences that support mental wellbeing, self-reflection, and connection to nature and culture. This trend has intensified in the post-Covid context, where young people have faced increased levels of stress, social isolation, and uncertainty about the future. At the same time, young generations are actively seeking meaningful, values-driven leisure activities that combine physical movement, cultural discovery, creativity, and personal development.
One visible example of this shift is the strong growth in walking routes, pilgrimages, and slow tourism experiences across Europe. These activities often lead young people to landscapes shaped by biocultural heritage, including places that were historically recognised by communities as significant meeting points, ceremonial sites, or locations for collective decision-making. Such places, here referred to as sacred places, were deeply embedded in everyday life and contributed to social cohesion, identity, wellbeing, and a sense of meaning.
Today, these heritage sites continue to offer strong relevance beyond religious practice. For young people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs, they can support spiritual wellbeing understood in an inclusive and non-denominational way: as opportunities for inner reflection, connection, meaning-making, and awareness of oneself in relation to others, nature, and history. These places can foster feelings of respect, calm, belonging, and connection - to nature, to tangible history such as ancestors and traditions, and to shared European cultural roots.
Importantly, such landscapes also provide fertile ground for creative and embodied forms of engagement, including music, dance, visual arts, storytelling, and performative practices. These artistic approaches can serve as powerful non-formal learning methods, enabling young people to express emotions, explore identity, and interact with heritage sites in participatory, inclusive, and youth-friendly ways. At the same time, they offer low-threshold opportunities for outdoor leisure, informal learning, intercultural dialogue, and active youth participation.
However, despite their strong potential, these places remain under-used in youth work, non-formal education, and wellbeing initiatives. There is limited awareness of these sites in general and among young people, as well as a lack of accessible tools and innovative methodologies that support meaningful, respectful, and inclusive engagement - particularly for young people facing fewer opportunities.
This project concept builds on expertise from previous successful European crossborder initiatives (e.g. SB WELL and LifeScape) focusing on landscape protection, wellbeing, and heritage-based tourism. It translates this experience into a youth-centred, educational, and participatory framework, aligned with Erasmus+ priorities.
Aim of the Project
The overall objective of the project is to empower young people by increasing their awareness, knowledge, and active engagement with natural and cultural heritage sites embedded in European landscapes, and to use these places as a resource for mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.
Specifically, the project aims to:
Promote youth wellbeing and resilience through nature-based, heritage-based, and creative leisure activities;
Strengthen young people’s sense of identity, belonging, and European citizenship by reconnecting them with shared cultural landscapes and values;
Develop innovative, youth-friendly tools and learning resources that support sustainable, inclusive, and safe access to these places;
Equip youth workers, educators, and organisations with non-formal educational methods, including artistic and embodied practices (music, dance, visual arts), to engage young people with heritage and wellbeing;
Contribute to the green and inclusive priorities of Erasmus+ by encouraging environmentally responsible leisure and practices, as well as equal access to leisure, learning, and cultural participation.
Through transnational cooperation, the project will create long-term impact by embedding biocultural heritage into youth work, promoting healthier lifestyles, fostering creativity and reflection, and supporting young people to reconnect - with nature, with each other, and with Europe’s shared cultural landscape.