PROJECT CODE: 2025-1-DE02-KA220-ADU-000352972
Shared Memories: Learning from the Past to Build Europe’s Future is an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in Adult Education that brings together organisations from Germany, Portugal, Spain, Romania, and Ukraine. The project seeks to preserve historical memory, promote intergenerational learning, and strengthen civic engagement by connecting older adults’ lived experiences with younger generations’ understanding of democracy, European values, and shared history.
Through testimonies, surveys, focus groups, workshops, and digital resources, the project transforms personal and collective memories into meaningful learning opportunities. It focuses especially on experiences linked to dictatorship, communism, war, repression, and democratic transition, while also integrating Ukrainian perspectives on war, resilience, and European solidarity.
Through testimonies, surveys, focus groups, workshops, and digital resources, the project transforms personal and collective memories into meaningful learning opportunities. It focuses especially on experiences linked to dictatorship, communism, war, repression, and democratic transition, while also integrating Ukrainian perspectives on war, resilience, and European solidarity.
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Preserve European historical memory by collecting and documenting testimonies from at least 100 older adults and/or direct relatives of people who lived under authoritarian regimes, communist systems, or war.
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Understand how young people perceive history and democracy by analysing the knowledge and views of 500 young people aged 16–30 through surveys and focus groups.
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Create engaging educational tools through a Digital Archive of European Memories, a Youth Knowledge Analysis Report, a Methodological Guide for Intergenerational Learning, and a Multimedia Platform with videos, podcasts, and interactive activities.
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Promote active citizenship and European values through intergenerational workshops, democratic reflection, and transnational exchange that encourage critical thinking, empathy, and participation.
Shared Memories is addressed primarily to: Young people aged 16–30, especially those interested in democracy, citizenship, history, and civic participation.
Older adults aged 55+, particularly those whose personal or family experiences are linked to dictatorship, war, repression, or political transition.
Educators, youth workers, community organisations, and adult education professionals looking for innovative ways to address historical memory, democratic values, and intergenerational dialogue.
Across Europe, historical memory is fading for many younger people, while older generations often lack structured opportunities to share their experiences. The project responds to this challenge by creating spaces where memory becomes dialogue, and dialogue becomes learning. It helps younger generations understand why democracy, freedom, and human rights must be actively protected, while also reducing isolation and increasing participation among older adults.
The project is also especially relevant in the current European context. By including Ukrainian perspectives on war, displacement, and resilience, Shared Memories connects past and present, strengthens solidarity across borders, and helps participants reflect on how European values are challenged and defended in real life.
