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[Resources ](https://civis.eu/en/resources) 2. VERIS - Toolkit for Social Integration through Intangible Cultural Heritage and Safeguarding of Cultural Memory VERIS - Toolkit for Social Integration through Intangible Cultural Heritage and Safeguarding of Cultural Memory ================================================================================================================= - Inclusion & Diversity - Civic engagement - Migration - Toolbox - Academics - Researchers - Administrators - Civil society - Policy makers This toolkit presents a practical, research-informed approach to social integration through intangible cultural heritage (ICH), with a particular focus on Syrian refugees and displaced communities in European and neighbouring-country contexts. It starts from a simple premise: sustainable integration is strengthened when newcomers are recognised not only through their needs, but also through the knowledge, traditions, skills, stories, and cultural memory they carry. In line with the UNESCO understanding of living heritage, the toolkit treats oral traditions, social practices, rituals, performing arts, and traditional craftsmanship as resources for identity, intercultural dialogue, mutual respect, and community resilience. Developed through the [VERIS CIVIS Open Lab](https://civis.eu/en/discover-civis-alliance/our-work/open-labs-civic-engagement/veris-voices-of-palmyra-engaging-in-tangible-memorial-heritage-in-social-innovation-for-refugee-inclusion) and informed by related fieldwork, the **Toolkit for Social Integration through Intangible Cultural Heritage and Safeguarding of Cultural Memory Supporting Syrian Refugees in European Contexts** draws on interviews, workshops, immersive heritage experiences, and collaborative work with Syrian refugees, migrants, and internally displaced persons in **Romania, Switzerland, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.** Its central model is organised around three mutually reinforcing pillars: - **Recognition** of cultural identity and knowledge; - **Connection** through reciprocal encounters between displaced and host communities; and - **Transmission** of heritage across generations and contexts. These principles shift integration practice from a deficit-based model toward participation, co-creation, and cultural agency. The toolkit translates this model into five practical modules: 1. **Storytelling and oral history** to support cultural memory, dignity, and intergenerational continuity. 2. **Crafts and traditional skills** to foster connection, confidence, cultural transmission, and livelihood opportunities. 3. **Seasonal traditions and social rituals** to create shared spaces of belonging and intercultural encounter. 4. **Creative methods of emotional processing** to enable indirect, participant-controlled expression through characters, collective voices, and objects. 5. **Knowledge transfer from fieldwork to teaching** to embed community-generated learning in curricula, micro-credentials, and cross-institutional collaboration, based on our CIVIS experience. Each module combines learning objectives, expected outcomes, step-by-step activities, facilitator notes, and field-based insights. Additional sections provide tailored guidance for social workers and NGOs, policymakers, cultural institutions, universities, community organisers, educators, and refugees themselves, together with monitoring and evaluation indicators at individual, community, and institutional levels. Ethics and trauma-sensitive practice are integral to implementation. Participation must be voluntary, informed, and revocable; communities must retain authority over how their heritage and narratives are represented; contributors should be credited and fairly compensated; and facilitators should provide meaningful choice, secure data handling, appropriate psychosocial safeguards, and referral pathways. Used in this way, the toolkit offers adaptable methods for turning living heritage into a practical resource for belonging, social cohesion, education, cultural continuity, and more equitable integration. [Discover the toolkit](https://civis.eu/storage/files/veris-ich-integration-toolkit-final-july2026.pdf) Other resources --------------- - ### Challenge-based learning approach in course design (2026) 15 September 2026 This module is part of a broader upskilling initiative aimed at educators who wish to learn how to apply innovative methodologies to their teaching practice. - Challenged-based approach - Course, module or learning opportunity - Academics - Researchers [ See more ](https://civis.eu/en/resources/applying-a-challenge-based-learning-approach-in-course-design-2026 "Challenge-based learning approach in course design (2026)") - ### Imagining Homeland: Palmyra's (in)tangible heritage and the voices of displacement 1 July 2026 This volume is a monograph documenting the virtual reconstruction projects of the Temple of Baalshamin, one of the most significant forms of tangible heritage belonging to the Syrian community, destroyed as a result of terrorist attacks. Through a series of workshops with Syrian communities—including refugees, displaced persons, and individuals who have experienced either forced or voluntary migration—the virtual reconstruction is presented as a process that supports social inclusion and the reconstruction of cultural identity. - Communication and Dissemination - Cultural heritage - E-book - Students - Academics - Researchers - Civil society [ See more ](https://civis.eu/en/resources/imagining-homeland-palmyra-s-in-tangible-heritage-and-the-voices-of-displacement "Imagining Homeland: Palmyra's (in)tangible heritage and the voices of displacement") ![CIVIS – Europe’s Civic University Alliance](https://civis.eu/build/assets/civis-CCpvK1nT.svg) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Europe’s Civic University Alliance ![Co-funded by the European Union](https://civis.eu/build/assets/co-funded-by-the-european-union-DSKLW1us.png)Views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). 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