A project supported by the Visegrad Fund, in collaboration with ARA ART (CZE), Fundacja Jaw Dikh (POL), Women for the Future Association (HUN), and Media Voice (SVK)
ABOUT
The Visegrad region continues to struggle with persistent social fragmentation, particularly between Roma and non-Roma communities. Despite democratic progress, deep-rooted structural inequalities, exclusion, and antigypsyism persist. Roma voices remain largely absent from mainstream historical and cultural narratives, reinforcing a cycle of invisibility and mistrust. This lack of inclusive memory practices is compounded by a broader deficit in research and institutional recognition of Roma contributions to Central European history, ranging from Holocaust resistance to cultural, civic, and political participation during communism and post-transition.
DESCRIPTION
The “Shared Histories, Shared Futures” project responds to these challenges by promoting inclusive, community-based storytelling. It aligns with the Council of Europe’s 2020 recommendation to integrate Roma history and culture into educational systems, offering an alternative, participatory model of civic memory. By crowd-sourcing personal stories, the project creates a living archive of Roma and non-Roma experiences, empowering youth and civil society to preserve shared memory and shape a more just, cohesive regional identity. The integrated methodology combines participatory training, oral history collection, digital storytelling, and transnational collaboration.
The project is training 8 young Roma and non-Roma in ethical storytelling, collecting 24 oral histories and creating a publicly accessible digital archive. After an online orientation workshop, an in-person Youth Lab and final conference will follow.
OUTPUTS
Apart from an online storytelling workshop, a Youth Lab (a training for story collection), a digital archive, and an online final conference are also planned.
IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD
1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026
COORDINATOR
Dr. Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka (anna [dot] mirga [at] eriac [dot] org)
SUPPORTERS
The project is co-financed by the governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
PARTNERS
