European Heritage Volunteers is a non-profit organisation based in Weimar, Germany, active at European and international level in the area of heritage education; it is a member of the European Commission Group of Experts on Cultural Heritage. European Heritage Volunteers organises since many years educational activities that take place at heritage sites. These projects – organised either entirely by European Heritage Volunteers or in partnership with other institutions and organisations – are aimed at professionals as well as at amateurs with no prior skills or heritage-related knowledge. The projects adopt a hands-on approach, instructing particupants on conservation and restoration practices and techniques, as well as providing training courses in handicrafts, study projects for students, and other activities with the intent to educate the participants and to raise awareness in the field of cultural and natural heritage. Projects take place all over Europe, stretching from Portugal in the West to Armenia in the East, from the North of Russia to the South of Italy. One of the organisation’s main objectives is to organise projects at heritage sites that has traditionally been over-looked or pushed aside in favour of more well-known sites, but that nevertheless have strong tangible or intangible value. European Heritage Volunteers’ holistic approach to heritage maintenance aims to draw the public’s attention to these undervalued heritage sites and to the activities necessary for their conservation, restoration and revitalisation. Furthermore, European Heritage Volunteers works to enable heritage activists to network throughout Europe – heritage-related initiatives in the field of volunteering for heritage as well as young heritage experts and young heritage reporters – in order to facilitate the exchange of experiences, ideas and best-practice models and to stimulate interaction.
