RURITAGE has ended – where does this leave us?

As all good things, the four years of RURITAGE have come to an end, but it’s not a bad thing. Instead, we must look at what we left, what are the results of this experience (little spoiler: they’re good) and make it a starting point for a good practice to develop our places how we learned we can do: not leaving anyone behind. 

In these years we followed Role Model and Replicator areas’ heritage-led activities through continues monitoring with the help of performance indicators and we are happy to say that outcomes were surely satisfying. We believe that that there is a necessity to put the community at the core of rural development processes for sustainable enhancement of local resources. Together with our 13 Role Models and 6 Replicators we had a great opportunity to prove regeneration through Cultural and Natural Heritage is possible. Along the way, 17 additional replicators joined us proofing the urge to revitalise their communities through participative processes (meet our Additional Replicators). 

Role Models and Replicators now have active Hubs (both physical and digital) where stakeholders can meet, discuss among each other and take action to enhance their community in a participative and transparent process. Under this type of management, we involved 3443 citizens in the hubs, 363 people have been trained on resilience, 39 buildings have been restored or retrofitted, 6 sites have now an easier accessibility, 50 kilometres of cycling/walking routes have been improved, 66 festivals and art exhibitions have been organized and more things will be done beyond the project to drive a sustainable development, but most importantly, all these experiences are transforming themselves from regeneration islands to influential factors for territories around them.

For this reason, it’s too soon to see long term changes and all we should do is to ride the wave, continue to learn with each other and allow others to follow our footsteps, through what we can perhaps call the “heritage of RURITAGE”. Or, as our Replicators and Role Models would say, “We are (all) RURITAGE”. 

So, after these four years, what are we leaving? 

RURITAGE is a dynamic project, designed to keep our past, present, and future in mind. To secure the sustainability of the project, and that all good outcomes are put to good use, we have ensured that others can continue to learn with us, through the RURITAGE Resource Ecosystem: a tool developed to support local communities to regenerate with the RURITAGE methodology and tools, and further how to monitor results. Any territory interested to learn with us while building upon their own heritage resources can try our various tools: from step-by-step guidance for entire territories to quick overviews of how to deal with certain rural issues (try our tool). 

We’re very delighted with this journey that began in 2018 and which now, four years later, is coming to an end. We thank everyone who joined this community made of participation, inclusivity, traditions, wonderful lands and so much more, with the hope of making it grow and keep developing our places in a sustainable way.