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
From 26–28 April 2026, the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), together with its project partners: Jaw Dikh Foundation (Poland), Women for the Future Association / Independent Theater Hungary (Hungary), Media Voice (Slovakia), and ARA ART (Czech Republic), organized the Youth Lab Training for Story Collection in Prague, Czech Republic, within the framework of the international project Shared Histories, Shared Futures.
The project brought together young Roma storytellers from across the Visegrad region to explore shared Central European histories and document Roma contributions to civic, cultural, and social life. Through oral history collection and community-based storytelling, the initiative seeks to strengthen inclusive memory practices and increase the visibility of Roma voices within regional historical narratives.
Following an international open call launched in March 2026, two participants from each partner country (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia ) were selected to join the project as youth researchers. The selection process focused on applicants’ motivation, interest in storytelling and memory work, proposed story ideas, and commitment to the full project cycle, while also ensuring regional and gender balance among participants.
The Prague Youth Lab marked the first in-person activity of the project and created a collaborative learning space bringing together participants, mentors, and partner organisations for a three-day programme focused on ethical interviewing, oral history methodologies, storytelling practices, and digital documentation tools.
The programme opened with a welcome dinner and informal networking session, creating space for exchange and relationship-building among participants and project partners. Across the following days, participants took part in practical workshops exploring access, trust, and ethics in oral history work, including informed consent, active listening, and creating safe interview environments. Sessions also focused on interview structures, creative storytelling approaches, and practical training in phone-based audio and video recording.
Mentors from each partner organisation actively contributed to the programme by facilitating thematic workshops connected to their own expertise and practice. Participants additionally received guidance on transcription, translation, and the preparation of materials for the project’s future digital archive through the use of accessible digital and AI-supported tools.
Following the Youth Lab, participants will collect and document three oral histories in their home countries between May and September 2026, contributing to a publicly accessible digital archive that will preserve and amplify Roma experiences and perspectives across the Visegrad region.
