How can cultural heritage become more relevant, accessible, and meaningful to younger generations?
From 26 to 27 September 2026, GEYC (Group of the European Youth for Change) is proud to participate in the European Heritage Label (EHL) Youth Event taking place at the iconic Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest—itself a designated European Heritage Label Site.
Under the theme "From Challenges to Action: Co-creating Youth Engagement in EHL Sites," the event brings together around 40 young people (aged 21–30), heritage professionals, representatives from EHL Sites across Europe, members of the EHL Youth Advisory Board, and youth organizations.
Rather than just talking about young audiences, this gathering is designed to work with youth to directly identify real-world challenges and co-create practical solutions that can be tested across Romanian EHL Sites.
What’s on the Agenda?
Day 1: Saturday, 26 September — Workshops & Co-Creation Labs
Participants will open the event with a plenary session examining the current landscape of youth participation, communication gaps, accessibility, representation, and long-term engagement in Romania.
The day will move into five hands-on practical workshops covering:
- Difficult Heritage and Intergenerational Dialogue
- Connecting Rural Youth with EHL Sites
- Communication Strategies for Young Audiences
- Funding & Turning Ideas into Action
- Sustainable Tourism at EHL Sites
Following these sessions, mixed teams of young leaders and heritage experts will enter Co-Creation Labs to turn these insights into concrete pilot projects, youth-led initiatives, and actionable strategies.
Day 2: Sunday, 27 September — Implementation & Next Steps
The second day focuses on refining these proposals for real-world implementation, testing, and future cross-sector collaboration. The event will wrap up with presentations of the developed pilot activities and recommendations for ongoing work.
Beyond Bucharest: Building Lasting Impact
Timed to coincide with European Heritage Days 2026, this event connects local action with a wider European dialog on community engagement, identity, and active citizenship.
For GEYC, our participation reflects our core commitment to empowering young people as co-creators of European culture and democracy. The work initiated in Bucharest aims to forge continuous partnerships between young change-makers, youth organizations, and heritage professionals—ensuring that shared European heritage remains a living, evolving dialogue. As culture and in particular the cultural heritage are part of our identity, we are delighted to integrate our participation in this event in the European Digital Citizenship Education Week 2026.
Cultural/natural heritage as an engine for rural development
This initiative builds on GEYC’s ongoing commitment to bridging youth, digital tools, and cultural preservation. It follows our successful Erasmus+ youth exchange, DigiEcho Heritage, held in Bran, Romania in 2024, where 40 young people from six countries explored digital storytelling to promote local heritage and celebrate European connections. So far, no EHL site from Romania is situated in a rural area, thus we see a strong potential for rural nominations in the following years.
About the European Heritage Label (EHL)
The European Heritage Label currently encompasses 80 sites across 23 European countries, forming a living museum of Europe that reflects the diversity of its histories and the unity of its shared values—such as human dignity, democracy, freedom, equality, and human rights.
EHL is an initiative of the European Commission, supported through the Creative Europe programme. To learn more about EHL sites and initiatives, visit the official European Heritage Label Bureau.