Rural resilience actions in times of COVID-19

RURITAGE is a four-year-long EU-funded research project, initiated June 2018, that strives to enable rural regeneration through their unique local cultural and natural heritage. Together with 38 partners worldwide, RURITAGE aims to sustainably enhance regional and community development by supporting rural communities to grasp the opportunities – and understand the potential – springing from their diverse and dynamic heritage. 

In April 2020, the RURITAGE project initiated an open call for actions of resilience intended to increase and strengthen rural communities in the midst of the global pandemic crisis. In a time like this, not only society, politics and economics as a whole is challenged but thousands of individuals and their communities are disrupted. Within the RURITAGE project, the Coronavirus has not only halted the development in the RURITAGE communities but also generated a real-life test for human and community resilience. 

Read more about the call and how to participate here.

Together with its participants, RURITAGE intend to co-build a collection of actions from all rural contexts related to project main areas that encompass sustainability, cultural and natural heritage, and the RURITAGE main innovation areas – local food, migration, arts and festival, landscape management and pilgrimage. All incoming actions are assessed on the basis of their relevance to the overall theme and focus of RURITAGE as well as their impact and replicability potential.

Actions are published gradually on the RURITAGE Resilience Actions page. The reader can already learn and get inspired by other communities around the globe. Some areas have been focusing on how to further strengthen local solidarity by building support systems for vulnerable families and children. In other communities, it has been important to ensure youth physical activities through online science outdoor games as a compliment to school. On the RURITAGE Resilience action page, the reader can also get inspiration on how maintain a sense of community within all age groups. There are actions from and for seniors as well as aimed at young children, that encourages creativity and fantasy in order to enrich life through art and literature. Learn and get inspired here! 

Help RURITAGE in making this moment of challenge a moment to enhance resilience in rural areas through solidarity, innovation, and creativity. Read more about the call and how to participate here.