Rooted
Year 1 (2025-26)
by Jordan Johnson
A mobile app that helps communities preserve their stories, history, and events through community-written content and an interactive map, before those stories are lost.
About This Idea
Rooted is a mobile app that is designed as a community-driven storytelling hub. It combines an interactive map with user-generated articles and events to preserve and share local history. The problem is simple but urgent: in communities like Idlewild, Michigan, incredible stories exist, but they're scattered across the internet, buried in library archives, or living only in the memories of elders who are passing on. When someone wants to learn about a community's history, there's no single place to go. And when community members want to share their stories, there's no single platform designed for them. Rooted solves this with three core features:
Articles:
Community members can contribute written stories and images to document oral histories, personal memories, and historical accounts. All articles are reviewed before publication, ensuring community knowledge is preserved in a single, accessible place rather than scattered across informal or temporary sources.
Events:
Local organizations can promote community gatherings, festivals, and cultural events to drive engagement.
Interactive Map:
A community-centered map with clickable icons for stories, events, and points of interest, helping users explore local history and community life geographically.
The app uses a role-based system to maintain content quality while keeping contribution accessible. Anyone can explore content, verified contributors can publish stories, and approved partners can share events.
The long-term vision is a scalable platform where communities can create their own Rooted instance using the same tools to preserve history, share stories, and support local engagement.
Where Did This Idea Spark at WMU?
This idea came from a trip to Idlewild, Michigan with the WMU Lee Honors College, where our group worked on community revitalization. I was tasked with writing a boat tour script about Joe Louis, the legendary boxer with deep ties to Idlewild, and that research revealed three things.
First, the stories are incredible. Idlewild was one of the few resorts where Black Americans could vacation during segregation, hosting figures like Aretha Franklin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joe Louis. The history is rich and worth preserving.
Second, finding information was difficult. I had to search across the internet, library archives, and scattered sources because there is no central place to learn about the community’s history.
Third, the elders who lived these stories are passing on, and with them, firsthand accounts are being lost.
That experience made it clear that communities like Idlewild need a modern tool to gather, preserve, and share their stories. Rooted is that tool.
Impact in Kalamazoo
If Rooted works in Kalamazoo, here’s who wins:
Local historians and cultural organizations gain a living platform to share their work with a broader audience instead of letting it sit in disconnected archives.
Institutions like the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, local historical societies, and neighborhood groups gain a growing outlet for their expertise and community knowledge.
Kalamazoo neighborhoods including Northside, Edison, Vine, and Stuart can tell their own stories, preserving cultural identity as the city continues to evolve.
Local businesses and event organizers gain a dedicated channel to promote community events, from art hops to neighborhood festivals, increasing engagement and foot traffic.
Schools gain an accessible resource for local history education, allowing students to explore Kalamazoo’s past through interactive, place-based learning.
Newcomers and visitors gain an authentic way to discover what makes Kalamazoo unique through real stories from local residents.
How Investment Helps
Without funding, Rooted remains a side project developed between classes. With this investment, it becomes a real product with a real launch in Kalamazoo. Funding makes the following possible:
• A polished MVP. Support covers hosting, design tools, and map API costs needed to build a stable, user-ready app rather than a rough prototype.
• Community partnerships. Funding allows dedicated time to work with local historians, cultural organizations, and neighborhood groups to seed the platform with authentic content before launch.
• A credible Kalamazoo pilot. The goal is to launch with at least 25 published stories and 5 local partner organizations actively contributing.
• Outreach materials. Simple, professional materials to recruit contributors, onboard partners, and support launch visibility.
• First local milestone: A live Kalamazoo instance of Rooted with seeded content and active community partners, publicly demoed as a working pilot.
What I'll Do With the Money
Development & Infrastructure - 40%
Cloud hosting, domain registration, map API credits, and media storage needed to support a stable, scalable app.
Design & Branding - 15%
Professional logo, app icon, and UI design to ensure Rooted feels polished, credible, and trustworthy from day one.
Community Outreach - 25%
Printed materials and local travel to meet with Kalamazoo historians, cultural organizations, and neighborhood groups to onboard partners and contributors.
Content Seeding - 20%
Small stipends for local historians and contributors to create foundational stories that anchor the platform at launch.
About the Founder
I’m Jordan, a Computer Science junior at WMU and an IT student worker on campus. I have hands-on experience building mobile apps, backend systems, and databases, the full stack needed to bring Rooted to life. After seeing how the history in Idlewild was scattered and fading, I knew this problem needed a real solution. I’m building Rooted because these stories matter, and every year we wait, more of that history disappears.