Saschiz was selected to host one of the seven Cultural Resource Centres in the country that are to be created through the project “Community Centre – main actor of promoting local cultural heritage for community development”, implemented by the Rural Assistance Centre in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Intercultural Institute in Timişoara and NIKU - The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage. The general objective of the project is to increase efficiency and quality of services offered by community centres (cultural centres), which will lead to strong, lively, rural Romanian communities, by promoting local heritage as a key source for culture, developing tourism and the cultural entrepreneurial spirit.
From November 2009 to May 2010, a complex training programme was offered for free for 120 people, who learned about cultural management, communications, cultural animation, identifying and promoting cultural heritage, developing cultural tourism, interculturality, legislation and cultural marketing. It was then decided to create seven regional resource centres for community centres, one in each of Romania’s development regions. After a detailed selection process, seven managers were chosen for the centres, according to exams, their interest and fitness to that particular region.
Besides Saschiz, another KEP community, Hârșova, will host such a centre, for the South-Eastern region.
The eight regional resource centres will benefit from free equipment (computer and printer), and coordinators will benefit from a seven-day study visit in Norway, in February-March 2011, for an exchange between Romanian and Norwegian cultural promoters. “The cultural resource centre will work in the communal library of Saschiz, a RECL node, which will have another opportunity to acquire new equipment”, RECL Saschiz manager Florentina Călugăr says.
The project is being financed by the Governments of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, through the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Space.