Crafts Map of Warsaw

Since many craftspeople offer repair services, our project also encourages a zero-waste approach.

Which co-creation moments are included in the practice?

We encourage people to let us know about the craft workshops that we haven’t put on our map yet.

Besides, we participate in a craft festival (“Noc Rzemiosła”) and are currently developing our own smartphone game that we will introduce to participants.

Pedagogic/methodological aspects

Our volunteers contact local craftspeople and schedule appointments. We gather their contact information, interview them on their specialization, and take photos of their workshops. We add the workshop to our online map and post the interview to our website. New points on the map are usually announced with a post on our Facebook fanpage. To create a full profile of the workshop, we need the owner to sign a GDPR consent statement and a contact sheet.

SWOT

Strength The biggest initiative of its kind in Poland – we have gathered information about more than 500 craftspeople. Weakness Time-consuming and in person process of data collection. Needs a lot of volunteers to collect data and keep it updated. Opportunities Publishing more photos and videos on our website. Promoting the website more, with SEO and other means. Threats Workshops going out of business. List of workshops becoming outdated. Running out of volunteers.

What kind of change is created?

Craft workshops become more popular and attract more clients, while citizens learn about nearby possibilities of buying local handmade goods and repairing existing ones instead of throwing them away.

Which aspects are transferable?

Both the methodology and our online map are transferable. We have already helped create a similar initiative in another Polish city, Wrocław.

Helping small businesses to overcome COVID

In 2020, amid the pandemic, we used the workshop database to launch cooperation with an online vintage store, and so we made it possible for craftspeople to sell their products online.

Conclusion

Our initiative combines a traditional aspect of the city, craftsmen workshops, and modern means of online communication.

Memory Office

VDU AJMD “Modusas”

Organization and country: “Kaunas 2022” Lithuania, Kaunas Target group: citizens and visitors of Kaunas Age group: any Context / Learning environment: non-formal education References, Link to the practices: https://wwwatmintiesvietoslt/en/

Short description

“The aim of the Memory Office programme is to awaken the multicultural memory of Kaunas city and town in its district and remind of its rich history, encourage pride in oneself and the place in which we live.”

This programme is designed to collect stories and memories of people living or visiting Kaunas of various backgrounds. Those stories are posted in their specific website for others to check out in hopes to help know ourselves better and inspire other people and various projects. How does the office engage citizens/learner?

Anyone visiting the website can post their memory. It can include a story of theirs or the place’s with pictures.

A memory cannot be posted without its approximate location. Once the post is done, a mark appears on the interactive map of Kaunas. This allows people to not only check out other hidden gems in Kaunas but also to get to know the history behind it.