Citizens Occupy Rural Europe (CORE)
Citizens Occupy Rural Europe (CORE) was an Europe for Citizens project involving 5 different countries: Portugal, Malta, Italy, Slovakia and Austria. CORE had an impact directly on European citizens and had the aims to empower the citizens, with a bigger focus on the ones in rural areas, tackling the importance of the European Union, their own culture and to promote their active participation as European citizens. CORE had also spoken to the citizens about the European values that we all share, hence giving the opportunity for these citizens to get to know their common history and values.
The main activities of CORE project were:
- 1 Kick Off Meeting of the representatives of the partner organizations: Beja, Portugal
- 5 Local “CORE EVENTS” – 1 per partner country
- 5 CORE Volunteering Activities – 1 per partner country
- 2 ESC projects – 1 Portuguese volunteer in Malta and 1 volunteer from Malta in Portugal, for one month.
- 2 CORE International Conference including representatives of the partner organizations: MALTA and PORTUGAL
- 15 Local “CORE WORKSHOPS” – 3 in each partner country
Resulting from these activities, CORE had 625 direct participants (401 with few opportunities) and about 3125 indirect participants.
The CORE project and its impact on the European citizens has raised awareness of a critical point of view on the rural areas of Europe and in empowering them in their definitions as individuals and as citizens in the European Union. Besides that, they were more open to multiculturality, equality, and inclusion. Moreover, they gained empirical experience through non formal methodologies and development practices.
It’s very good to see new projects in terms of rural tourism to attract people to our city. And so we can be more proud of our city
Because there are many more opportunities in big cities, which are more developed and open to people without professional experience (early career). They are much more complete cities at cultural and artistic levels; with better and more accessible transport network.
Few job opportunities, little offer of services and events (associated with large metropolises), the sometimes destructive and prejudiced mentality of a part of the resident population of a generation between 40 and 70 years old.
For me, the 3 main reasons why young people leave the rural regions for more urban regions and more in the industrialized zone are: work; society; personal growth.
