The Heroes 2C project and its partners were aiming at:

1) DEVELOPING EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES ACHIEVING THE MIX BETWEEN MARITIME HERITAGE AND SOCIAL INCLUSION TECHNIQUES

2) DELIVERING A HIGH QUALITY RECONSTRUCTION and CONSERVATION through the involvement of professionals coming from the ship building field combined with socially excluded people and technical schools.

3) Using the reconstruction of the ships as A TOOL TO IMPROVE TOURISM AND MARITIME HERITAGE AWARENESS.

The project objectives were to:

- favour the reconstruction of three ships belonging to the Maritime history of the 2Seas area,

- use this reconstruction as a tool to improve social inclusion

- use this reconstruction as a tool to raise maritime heritage awareness

- include students, volunteers and trainees into the reconstruction in order to give them the opportunity to gain technical skills and competences

- to raise maritime heritage awareness for the general public

- to raise the interest of pupils by giving them the opportunity to visit the shipyard and discover the different phases of reconstruction.

The project will contribute to the development of the cross border area by:

- favouring mobility

- enabling excluded people to gain qualifications and competences in various sectors (woodwork, finishing, steel work, engineering…) and in fine potentially accessing jobs available in the 2Seas area

- raising awareness about iconic attractions from the 2Seas Maritime heritage and encouraging visitors to come in the zone.

- enabling students and schools pupils to access a lively way of learning by benefiting from the shipyards directly.

- providing a long term Maritime Heritage awareness strategy and benefiting to future generation.

The first activity aimed at developing educational and training activities achieving the mix between maritime heritage and social inclusion techniques. In this activity we have exchanged professionals, apprentices and volunteers to share about the involvement of socially and economically excluded people into a reconstruction project. We have organised visits to schools in order to raise awareness about our common project and students came to the shipyards to witness the reconstruction and learn about maritime heritage. Since the project has started in 2010, Instructors, Trainees, Apprentices and volunteers had the opportunity to visit the other projects for periods from 2 days up to 1 week.

The second activity aimed at delivering a high quality reconstruction of the ships. In this activity, we have also exchanged professionals on different construction, building and finishing techniques. The reconstruction of the ships was done by professionals, trainees, apprentices, volunteers and specialised colleges using environmental friendly techniques. The partners have joined forces and have created parts of the ships for each other. We have given to all participants the opportunity to have a working experience abroad, in a different cultural environment which helps them build their self-confidence.

The third project activity aimed at using the reconstruction of the ships as a tool to improve tourism and maritime heritage awareness. Project partners have opened their shipyards to the public while the ships were under reconstruction and we have created a film showing the reconstruction. We have opened visitor centres within the shipyards. We have also organized tours for interested people to visit the 3 ships and we have organised events to promote the work done and the common partnership. Association Tourville has welcomed thousands of visitors since the project started. The New Belgica visitor centre is now welcoming a substantial amount of visitors every month and the numbers are constantly increasing. More and more visitors are coming to Gillingham Pier now that the Medway Queen has been towed back from Bristol.

We have exchanged professionals, trainees, apprentices and volunteers. These people visited the 3 shipyards for periods from 2 days to 1 week. They were able to learn from each other and to share on social inclusion and construction techniques. A substantial amount of schools as well as technical colleges from the 3 countries visited the shipyards and the 3 partners building ships visited schools and colleges to give presentations and workshops about Maritime Heritage and Environmental issues.

A network of professionals was created. 2 workshops on environmental friendly techniques were respectively organised in Medway and Flanders. A cross border seminar on Design & Engineering was held in Boom and 1 conservation project was delivered by December 2013.

Visitor centres have been opened and further developed at the 3 shipyards and the number of visitors is constantly increasing.

A 15mn cross border movie relating our 3 years adventure has been created.

A theatre spectacle was held on the Jean Bart shipyard, De Steenschuit promoted the Heroes 2C project during the celebration of the 10th anniversary of “the Barge”, the first ship they ever built.

A cross border concert featuring bands from the 3 countries was held on Gillingham Pier. Project partners have organised and attended all sorts of events of different scales, including a common Heroes 2C stall every year at Ostend at Anchor, biggest maritime festival in Belgium. Association Tourville & De Steenschuit organised tours to visit the other places.

A number of 4 newsletters and 2 leaflets in 3 languages were created and disseminated.

A variety of short films showcasing the project activities were made by the project partners.

Beneficiaries & Target groups of our project were: Unemployed people, Excluded people (including disabled people and ethnic minorities), Professionals/ skilled workers, Companies, enterprises, Tourism stakeholders, Heritage experts, environment experts, Not for profit organization, tourists, locals, neighbourhoods, schools, technical colleges, Universities, young people, Older people, Local economy (suppliers, contractors), Public authorities, Volunteers, Naval Architects, Designers, Environmental Experts, Shipbuilders, Job Centres.
The benefits for each territory are quite clear, identical and correspond to the 3 main activities of the project:
Social Inclusion: Each territory has now a training workshop/shipyard in place where socially excluded people have been trained and these places will remain training centres after the project ends. Although they were already in place in France and Belgium prior to the project start, they have been further developed and the EU funds have permitted the employment of additional trainers which benefits the trainee.
Maritime Heritage: 3 Historic ships belonging to 3 regions of the 2 Seas area are being rebuilt, benefiting the preservation of traditional maritime skills, involving the local communities.
Tourism Development: The rebuilding of these ships and the opening of the 3 visitors centres will attract more tourism in the area and will therefore benefit the local economies.

The benefits/outcomes for each territory are quite clear, identical and correspond to the 3 main activities of the project:
Social Inclusion: Each territory has now a training workshop/shipyard in place where socially excluded people have been trained and these places will remain training centres after the project ends. Although they were already in place in France and Belgium prior to the project start, they have been further developed and the EU funds have permitted the employment of additional trainers which benefits the trainee.
Maritime Heritage: 3 Historic ships belonging to 3 regions of the 2 Seas area are being rebuilt, benefiting the preservation of traditional maritime skills, involving the local communities.
Tourism Development: The rebuilding of these ships and the opening of the 3 visitors centres will attract more tourism in the area and will therefore benefit the local economies.

To my opinion, the real added value of doing a cross border project is: To access EU funding and to be able to work and share with organisations and people in a neigbouring country with similar aims and objectives. Without the cross border partnership we've had with our European partners, we wouldn't have been able to achieve any of what we have done as we wouldn't have had any money for it. Without the Heroes 2C project, none of the volunteers, trainees, apprentices and instructors would have had the chance to work in another cultural environment abroad while such an experience is priceless.

The good news is that this project has created a good cross border partnership between people and organisations working together towards the same aims and objectives and all project partners have a strong will to continue the collaboration beyond the end of the project. Project partners have therefore developed and successfully submitted an application for Cluster to the 2 Seas Programme. The “Maritime Heritage Skills: Preserve, Develop, Share” is a short term cross border project which will enable Heroes 2C to join forces with the TMS project in order to continue working on topics such as maritime heritage skills and training programmes for disadvantaged groups of society. The story continues…

Cross border cooperation is great as it enables you to work and share with other people and organisations in other countries which are working towards the same aim with the same objectives. You will be entering a cross border adventure which will last a few years and maybe more so it is important to choose your partners carefully. You will need to make sure that they allow sufficient staff time to the project in accordance with their tasks and responsibilities. Take the necessary time to write your application as a project well written and well understood by all parties will be way easier to manage than a project having too many expectations. Get to know the people you are working with and meet with them on a regular basis to understand the way the work as we all come from different backgrounds and cultures. Make internal and external communication one of your priorities.

Within 3 years, the project has demonstrated its added value to the region and has also seen the development of permanent training, visitor centres and more advanced ships. The ships are attracting more and more visitors and public and private fund will become easier to find. Moreover, the visitor centres and the ships are used to develop new economic ideas: it is possible to use the visitor centres as a hosting place to sell local products and specialities for visitors, to develop a restaurant activity or even to sell art pieces for artists from the 2Seas area. The new economic activities will help them to work as a social enterprise and to employ disadvantaged people. Moreover, the link between the ships will last after the end of the project and a permanent partnership is in place: The partners won't lose the communication link they have created and will exploit it to promote their activities and develop new project ideas together.

The good news is that this project has created a good cross border partnership between people and organisations working together towards the same aims and objectives and all project partners have a strong will to continue the collaboration beyond the end of the project. Project partners have therefore developed and successfully submitted an application for Cluster to the 2 Seas Programme. The “Maritime Heritage Skills: Preserve, Develop, Share” is a short term cross border project which will enable Heroes 2C to join forces with the TMS project in order to continue working on topics such as maritime heritage skills and training programmes for disadvantaged groups of society, in the view of developing a bigger application for the next generation of INTERREG projects. The story continues…

The good news is that this project has created a good cross border partnership between people and organisations working together towards the same aims and objectives and all project partners have a strong will to continue the collaboration beyond the end of the project. Project partners have therefore developed and successfully submitted an application for Cluster to the 2 Seas Programme. The “Maritime Heritage Skills: Preserve, Develop, Share” is a short term cross border project which will enable Heroes 2C to join forces with the TMS project in order to continue working on topics such as maritime heritage skills and training programmes for disadvantaged groups of society, in the view of developing a bigger application for the next generation of INTERREG projects. The story continues…

The main project outputs that we wish to keep alive are the ships, the training centres and the visitor centres in order to progress the construction of the ships by employing and giving training to disadvantaged groups of society. We will do so by continuing the european cross border adventure and by looking for other sources of funding to finance our activities wherever possible