Ruse is one of the most beautiful cities in Bulgaria. Yet majority of young people in the country don't know much about it. Our cultural heritage is in need of its own ambassadors among the youth. It is only by making it familiar and popular, that we can ensure its safeguarding and adoption. Our idea is to develop a network of young people, who would be engaged in the generation of innovative and high-value quality content describing the cultural heritage of the Municipality of Ruse.

Ruse, Municipality of Ruse, Bulgaria

Ruse is a border town that is experiencing poor relations with the mainland. That makes it less attractive to young travellers to visit and explore, especially since they haven't heard much about it. Unfortunately in the past 15 years all high school programs and classes related to “history” have dwindled by 75%. Due to that it is less known that Ruse harbours the remains of prehistoric life, has over 270 registered architectural heritage sites and was once an important cultural and economic centre. Young people are detached from the knowledge about their own heritage, culture and history. The cultural heritage of Ruse is in dire need of motivated young people who can actively engage in safeguarding and popularising it among their peers in the most adequate and sustainable way.

We aspire to develop a community of youth between the ages of 14 and 25 who are interested in the areas of history, architectural and intangible cultural heritage and help them acquire deeper knowledge into unknown or lesser-known facts about their hometown.
With the help of history experts and influencers the community will create products such as series of vlogs and blog posts, social media content. The community will help translate and by this become ambassadors of Ruse’s cultural heritage to their peers all over the country by reaching out to them through youngster channels and speaking in their own voice. Engaging the youth translates into better chances of safeguarding, sustaining, and developing the cultural heritage of the town for the future to come.

- We will identify and select young people, who show interest in cultural heritage and will organise them into a community.
- With the help of local and national experts, we will set up workshops that will help the community to learn fundamental aspects of the history of the city.
- We will help to set up clubs for young people, according to their interest-those wishing to write blogs; those wishing to learn how to make a video or vlog of local cultural landmarks,heritage sites,historical figures or urban legends, etc. We will provide a venue to meet, time and mentors, that would assist them in the development of products and in popularising them.
- We will assist in popularizing the results of their activity across the community - e.g. by means of delivering talks in the city schools,the city library,and others.
- We will hold a competition in order to generatе ideas - what would be the most alluring way to present cultural heritage to the young people of the town. The processes of generating ideas,budgeting, idea presentation in front of a jury,and its implementation through the available budget is an integral part of building up of a confident and experienced community of youth, with whom we can perate for sustainable and future-proof results.

The short-term results are:
- products developed in order to popularize the local cultural heritage in the most adequate way for the youth community.
- a wide audience attained on a local and national level,through the social media network of the youth ambassadors,their mentors,and all media channels available to Gradored.
The long-term results are:
- an active informal community of the local youth set up,which is highly interested in and familiar with the cultural heritage of Ruse.
- Inhanced awareness of the local community on topics related to their cultural and historic heritage
- A strong bond developed between the generations of the mentors and the young people that participate in the project, that would ensure long-term adoption of best practices,mutual learning,and growth.

Our idea is focused on assisting youth in developing their potential. Throughout the project, they would come to know their cultural heritage, they will have developed products that popularize it in a way conceived by them, would have had the opportunity to test their own hypotheses in action and to analyze the results from the different types of campaigns they have carried out.

A network of actively engaged youth interested in the cultural heritage is an informal way of ensuring an active citizen position on the matters of safeguarding and sustaining the local architectural heritage and guaranteeing its adequate inheritance by the young generations.

Gradored is responsible for implementing projects that increase the visibility of cultural heritage sites. We have achieved this through the use of innovative methods such as creating a catalog of architectural sites and landmarks with local and national significance. All sites in our catalog have had a scannable QR sign placed on them, which allows any passer-by to learn their respective history in five languages. Furthermore, we are in the process of developing 3D models of lost sites and virtual tours, by using AR and VR technology.
We firmly believe that the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Ruse is in need of becoming familiar among the younger generations.

Rent for a suitable community space -4000 euro
Acquisition of hardware and equipment for the projects to be implemented by the youth - 6000 euro
Consumables -1000 euro
License or subscription fees for software used in the creation of digital assets-2500 euro
Marketing and popularizing -2000 euro
Organization of an idea generation competition -1500 euro
Mentor and expert fees -4000 euro
Transport and accommodation fees for the mentors and experts -1000 euro
Staff costs -13 000 euro

All comments and feedback will be highly appreciated. Young people are way more interested in the new rather than the old. With this project we aim to twist the way they learn about and see history. All suggestions how we can make this experience even more valuable to the youth is welcomed.