Q4 2025
completedLittle Homeland concept as a synthesis of initiatives I·01/I·04/I·05 approved by the foundation's programme board
Otwieramy archiwum…
I·07Phase: Concept❦Culture❖Education◇Digitisation
Little Homeland
A digital atlas of a specific municipality
Concept phase — mapping potential reference municipalities with an active regional society, a library embedded in the local community and a parish priest open to sharing the parish archive. Priority: a municipality where material heritage (wooden church, manor, cemetery) is preserved but oral memory is fading with the passing of the oldest generation.
Problem
Municipal identity has existed in Polish culture for centuries, yet in the 21st century it is scattered across five to seven separate sources: the oral memory of older residents (recorded nowhere), the parish archive (paper, in the priest's cellar), the municipal museum's display case (open four hours a week), the school chronicle, families' private photo albums, small-run local publications, and a fragment of a 'History' tab on the municipal website. There is no single digital space in which a primary-school pupil, a weekend visitor, a returning emigrant or an academic researcher can find a coherent, verifiable, multimedia story about a specific place. The result: the identity of little homelands fades year after year — particularly among the young.
Approach
Little Homeland is a **synthesis of the foundation's other initiatives** — in it the results of I·01, I·04 and I·05 manifest as one human atlas of a specific place. The pilot municipality receives from the foundation a complete toolkit and methodological support to build its own memory atlas in five layers: (1) an **interactive timeline** of local history — from the first mention in sources to the present day; (2) a **map of significant places** with geolocation — churches, cemeteries, sites of battles, former manors, mills, wayside shrines; (3) **biographies of figures** associated with the municipality (parish priests, teachers, soldiers, regionalists); (4) a **collection of photographs and documents** drawn from the I·01 repository; (5) **voice testimonies and 3D models** — oral-history interviews from I·04, models of wooden objects from I·05. Local curatorship: regional society + school + library under the foundation's methodological care.
Specifications
Reference municipality
1 pilot
Target municipality size
3,000–12,000 residents
Time to build pilot atlas
~9 months
Digital output
Mobile-first PWA portal
Physical output
Printed atlas A4, ~120 pages
Integration
I·01 · I·04 · I·05
Technology stack
GIS atlas (Mapbox / OpenStreetMap)Interactive timeline (timeline.js / custom)WebGL 3D viewer (Three.js)I·01 integration (photo repository)I·04 integration (Talking Archive — interviews)I·05 integration (Map of Polish Wooden Heritage — 3D models)Mobile-first PWA (offline-first in the field)Self-hosted CMS (Strapi / Directus)
What is already done·Facts
Concrete milestones already delivered
Q1 2026
completedPreliminary mapping of 12 potential reference municipalities — assessment criteria include the activity of the regional society, preservation of wooden objects and openness of the parish priest
Q1 2026
completedWorking consultations with three regional societies — methodological feedback on the toolkit design
Roadmap
Milestones of the initiative
Q4 2026
Choice of reference municipality — detailed criteria: active regional society + preserved wooden objects + willing local curators
Q1 2027
Complete toolkit prepared (GIS atlas + timeline + 3D viewer + CMS) + methodological documentation for local curators
Q2 2027
Activation in the pilot municipality — first team of local curators (3–5 people) + methodological training
Q3 2027
Public premiere of the Little Homeland atlas of the pilot municipality — digital + printed version (~120 A4 pages)
Q4 2027
Evaluation: usage metrics, feedback from schools, residents' opinions, measurable educational effects
2028
Reference package ready for replication — open-source CMS + documentation + methodological support framework
2029
10 municipalities with active Little Homeland atlases — network for sharing local-curator experience
Partners we are looking for
Who we want to work with
Rural and urban-rural municipalities
Pilot reference municipality (3,000–12,000 residents)
Regional and historical societies
Local curators of atlas content — the most important partner group
Municipal schools
Pupils as co-authors of biographies, photographs and recordings — educational project for grades 4–8
Rural parishes
Archival sources (sacramental registers, parish chronicles), biographical material, 3D models of wooden churches
Local cultural centres
Public place to activate the project — workshops, exhibitions, launches
Municipal libraries
Local archive of regional publications + a place where residents consult the team
National Heritage Institute (NID)
Monument description standards + integration with the NID database
Rural housewives' circles
Women's memory, crafts, cuisine, ritual — particularly important for intangible tradition
Who this is for
Rural and urban-rural municipalities of 3,000–12,000 residents, regional societies, municipal schools, libraries, parishes, cultural centres, rural housewives' circles, local historical associations
Get involved
Your institution could be the first.
First partners co-create the initiative through feedback and tests. They receive full support from the foundation's team at pilot pricing, and their contribution feeds into the public reference package.
FTI · KRS 0001049849
