The project Culture makers want to restore ancient craft knowledge related to the arts and crafts and connect younger women generations to older carriers of this knowledge, to bridge the gap in order to create conditions that would enable women to create and add value to new products. During the process we will collect life stories of the craftsmen, disclose the stories online, do practical workshops and will sell the handcrafts made by women.

In the North of Portugal, Arcos de Valdevez a aged population and low density village

The region where the project will be held have low population density and aged population, and have low civic engagement. At this moment young people start to be attracted by this part of the region and this project intend to create a network of cooperation between young women and local artisans as a way to preserve local heritage, recording life stories for future memory, transmitting knowledge, training for creativity and autonomy in order to create a critical sense and develop citizenship.

This project is for the community and with the community. Around 980 people leave in this village and they will actively take part in the project. The aims is to create a network of cooperation between women and local artisan from a village NGO, municipality from both villages, parishes and other local organizations, thus through non-formal education develop small workshops, street markets pass on their knowledge to young disadvantaged and with fewer prospects in the short and medium term for this way boost the community, create jobs through the return to rural activities.

The project is for 12 months and during that time we are planning different phases: 1st collection of life stories for craftsmen for future memory, 2nd edition of videos and online publication to involve social media and international female community, 3rd development of traditional workshops, 4th preparation of street markets to sell the products and involve the community, 5th preparation and implementation of online activities through already existing social platforms and sensitive to women's empowerment, 6th during this time we will disseminate and exploit the project and its activities on social networks.

A year from now we expect: 1st to create a network of cooperation between young women and local artisan; 2nd encourage young people to creativity, entrepreneurship and employability; 3rd encourage the replication or reinvent of ancient crafts as a way to push forward young women to self-employment; 4th to acquire skills and expertise; 5th preserve local heritage; 6th to educate for active citizenship; 7th Collect 60 life stories; 8th make 3 markets; 9th make 6 online workshops;10th restore ancient craft knowledge; 11th will promote the region in terms of culture and heritage. With the partnership with local organization and the municipality implemented at the community and with the local community we intend to empower the women and the local community.

With this project, we want to empower people, especially young women that the recognition of local heritage is an untapped potential and when it is known, it enhances a set of situations that can lead to emancipation, knowledge, questioning and change.
In addition to local communities, we intend to publicize this project and take other young people to embrace and get to know their local culture so that when creating jobs through the return to rural activities, in this case the craft: with a serious of activities linked to it, to raise awareness for the protection of integrated production. As a result it is expected to promote intercultural and intergenerational dialogue, reverse the direction of the risk of social and economic exclusion and promote the civic engagement.

The idea is behind a dream and it is that dream that moves us.ADOC started 20 years ago we have grown together and the safeguarding of heritage and the empowerment of communities and people with fewer opportunities is the main focus.We work with women with disabilities, with people with reduced mobility, with children and young people at risk of social exclusion and school dropout, and all these audiences end up being so anonymous that they have no visibility, no voice and are not heard by our government.We want to transform this through culture,through the recognition of the cultural heritage that is the legacy of each one and through this recognition the creation of a sense of belonging and identity that enables each of actors to want to participate in the res-public which bellong to all

Personnel costs, members of the team and external experts: 25.000€
Material, Technical equipment: 9.000€
Photo and video editing: 1300€
Promotion materials and communication: 4000€
Travel, accommodation costs and meals: 2910€
Administrative costs and office expenses: 3200€
Website and online plataform: 4500€
ADOC contribution: 910€

We would greatly appreciate any feedback about our application and advice about the possible difficulties we might encounter during the implementation.
We would like to hear your opinion about our project and different ideas on how to implement it so that it has more effective results.