Our Approach to Heritage Awareness:

Heritage Awareness is a focal feature of CIE's activities and work with cultural heritage. It is the key to the sustainability of our projects. It is CIE's fervent belief that in order to successfully raise the awareness of heritage, we should first start with the local communities. Once the local people feel engaged with and empowered by their heritage, projects can become much more sustainable and far-reaching. Only through working with local individuals and communities can Heritage Awareness activities be truely successful. 

Through regular consultations and meetings, both prior to and throughout each project's duration, the stakeholders themselves can outline what their needs are, and together we can tailor and design activities that will address and realise their desires through fostering and inspiring long-lasting effects. Our ultimate aim is to try to help our partner communities to take the leading role over the management of their heritage. This approach will also further develop cultural heritage management in and around that area, as well as the heritage field in general.  Our activities create a platform for these stakeholder communities to become involved and together to drive the projects. CIE provides the tools for this, and through our training and development initiatives, we can help to enhance the skills of those involved and working with heritage, as well as reinforcing the infrastructure already in place. Through our widespread international network, we aim to raise the national and international awareness of a particular place, site, landscape, tangible and intangible heritages. We aim to raise the awareness of the local, national and world heritage, but also to raise the capacity of the local area, to take heritage management into their own hands. 

One prominent feature within many of CIE's Heritage Awareness programmes is training and education. Through activities such as fieldschools, NAS (Nautical Archaeological Society) diver training, and workshops, we aim to boost the capacity of the heritage management infrastructure as well as educate the next generation of heritage practitioners. Upon completion of these training activities, it allows the communities and individuals to continue to develop and enhance their knowledge and skills relating to heritage and management practices. Thus these activities can continue to stimulate and develop further awareness in the future that is long-lasting and far-reaching. 

In order to encourage sustainable preservation of heritage, CIE feels that it is essential to involve local communities and heritage practitioners in the promotion and transmission of local, national and international values of heritage. It is not only the adult population which we aim to reach through our activities. We also try to reach the next generation of heritage practitioners and managers, in order to enhance the sustainability of such Heritage Awareness projects in the long-term future. This approach also provides opportunities for the young and enthusiastic to get involved and gain experience in the heritage profession. For example CIE has run educational programmes for teachers and school pupils, fieldschools with students and young professionals, youth development activities with teenagers as well as training for those already working within the profession. 

Our activities and meetings focus upon communication and transparancy, bringing together individuals and groups, embracing the diversity and variety of different stakeholders in exchanging experiences and knowledge of tangible and intangible heritage. Through this level of interaction and involvement we aim to promote awareness and understanding through raising the profile and transparency of heritage.