Voice Your Place – Sulina
Voice of the community, local heritage and audio guides narrated by teenagers
Voice Your Place – Sulina is a cultural-educational initiative dedicated to the built and natural heritage of the city of Sulina, developed from the concept of Iarina Tava and implemented with the support of YVS as a funding applicant and project partner. For YVS, the project represented an important opportunity to expand the activity in Tulcea County, continuing the strategic direction of Dobrogea, through an approach that connects heritage, non-formal education, young people and the local community.
The story of the project
Voice Your Place – Sulina is part of the independent initiative Voice Your Place (https://voiceyourplace.com/ro/), developed by arch. Iarina Tavă, which proposes a participatory method of exploring local heritage through the voice of the community. The official project, together with the resulting audio guides, can be accessed on the voiceyourplace.com platform, where episodes dedicated to Sulina and its heritage sites are published.
In this edition, YVS played the role of funding applicant and implementation partner, supporting the management, administrative coordination and integration of the project into a broader direction of work dedicated to Dobrogea. The cultural and educational concept of the project belongs to the Voice Your Place / Iarina Tavă initiative, and YVS's involvement represented an opportunity for collaboration and expansion of the organization's activity in Tulcea County.
Voice Your Place – Sulina starts from a simple and powerful idea: a city can be known not only through guides written by specialists, but also through the voices of those who live there, travel through it, observe it, and grow up in it.
Sulina is a city with a unique identity, located at the meeting point of the Danube, the sea, port history, built heritage and nature. Its geographical position, relative isolation and cosmopolitan history make Sulina a unique but also vulnerable place: its heritage is valuable, but it needs new forms of visibility, interpretation and proximity to the community.
The project proposed a participatory method of exploring the city: teenagers from Sulina were involved in an interdisciplinary Summer School, where they worked with specialists from different fields to discover the built heritage, the soundscape, the nature of the Delta, the stories of the city and the ways in which they can be passed on.
The workshops included architectural heritage, soundscape, creative writing, acting, ornithology and audio recordings. The participants were not only beneficiaries of the project, but co-creators of the final result: a set of bilingual audio guides that present Sulina through a vivid, personal and community-based perspective.
Through this approach, heritage was not treated only as historical information, but as a learning experience, identity and belonging. Young people were encouraged to look at the city more closely, to discover its buildings, sounds, birds, stories and to become, in turn, narrators of the place.
For YVS, the involvement in Voice Your Place – Sulina was of strategic importance. The project created a bridge between the organization's activity in Constanța and its expansion towards Tulcea, consolidating Dobrogea as a working territory for projects that connect cultural and natural heritage, civic education, community and the development of sustainable cultural resources.
What we set out to do
- Let's support the implementation of a cultural initiative dedicated to the built and natural heritage of Sulina, with an emphasis on the involvement of teenagers and the local community.
- Let's contribute to the development of accessible cultural resources, through bilingual audio guides that present the city's heritage in a contemporary, participatory and easy-to-use format.
- Let's support the involvement of young people in a non-formal education process, through interdisciplinary workshops on heritage, soundscape, creative writing, acting, ornithology and audio recording.
- Let's encourage a closer relationship between the local community and Sulina's heritage, through open activities, guided tours, an exhibition and a final event.
- Let's strengthen YVS's presence in Dobrogea by expanding its activity in Tulcea County and collaborating with cultural initiatives relevant to local heritage.
What did I get?
- The Voice Your Place – Sulina project was implemented, a participatory cultural initiative dedicated to the built and natural heritage of the city of Sulina.
- An interdisciplinary Summer School for teenagers was organized, with workshops on architectural heritage, soundscape, creative writing, acting, ornithology, and audio recordings.
- Bilingual audio guides were produced, in Romanian and English, available on the official Voice Your Place platform and accessible through QR codes placed in the city.
- The project involved young people from Sulina in the process of research, creative interpretation and storytelling of local heritage, contributing to the development of cultural, creative and participatory skills.
- The local community was involved through guided tours, an exhibition and a final event to present the project results.
- For YVS, the project represented an important expansion in Tulcea County and a consolidation of the Dobrogea direction, by collaborating with an initiative that valorizes local heritage through education, community voice and digital tools.
Non-governmental association dedicated to civic engagement, heritage and community development.