In mid-June, a group of 20 community builders from 7 European countries gathered in Subotica, Serbia, to talk about conflict, tension and facilitation in community work. They are participants in Via’s international peer learning program, Community Alphabet (CA).
You may remember the name Subotica from an earlier blog post featuring Anamaria Tumbas, a CA participant and native of Subotica, a city of 100,000 close to the Serbian border with Hungary. It was on the invitation of Anamaria and her team member Gordana that we recently traveled to Subotica, to hold our CA workshop in Klara i Rosa. Klara i Rosa is a community cultural center that brings together people from diverse settings – Serbians, Hungarians, newcomers to the city – with different perspectives and lived experience.
Speech cafe
Our visit to Subotica began with Klara i Rosa’s Speech Cafe. Every week, the Speech Cafe offers newcomers to Subotica and locals a chance to talk about a specific topic and help each other in language (Serbian, Hungarian, English). We were lucky enough to join a Speech Cafe session and exchange with the group – in English:).
Conflict/tension and facilitation
The main themes of the CA workshop, which was the third and final in-person gathering of the CA 2025-26 cohort, were conflict/tension in community building and facilitation. Stella Fischer, peace and conflict and facilitation expert, guided the group in laying out a theoretical framework and leading exercises around these topics. The participants found the discussions on these topics very relevant to their work, as one noted: “As we focus on building bridges between people of very diverse backgrounds, life experiences, and worldviews, we often come across moments of tension. My colleague and I would love to get better at identifying underlying conflicts in their early stages and face them with courage and open minds.”
You can see the basics in our ebooks on Tension & conflict and Facilitation.
Site visit: Contemporary art gallery docent program
We visited the contemporary art gallery in Subotica to learn about the gallery’s 60+ docent program. The gallery’s curator, Nela Tankovic, explained she had been inspired to start the docent program after visiting the U.S. Congress and experiencing eloquent volunteer docent-led tours in U.S. museums. Back in Subotica, she launched an open call for volunteers 60+, no art background needed. The response was outstanding and today, the gallery has a multilingual team of volunteers ages 60 to 81, who lead guided talks in “their” gallery and learn about art together.
It is worth noting that Subotica is known for its art nouveau architecture, including the gallery built as a family residence in 1904.
Facilitation approaches
Our CA participants also delved deep into the practice of facilitation, exploring the purposes and paths we choose o facilitate different situations and taking a granular look at the nuances of this “art”. This led some participants to see their role differently: “I realized that my role is not to provide answers or move people quickly toward agreement, but to create a space where different perspectives can coexist and be explored safely.”
We are grateful to have shared Klara i Rosa’s space for our workshop and thank our hosts, Anamarija and Gordana, for allowing us to experience their work and for their hospitality.
