Living Legacy Project - Changing the World One Story at a Time

May 21, 2011 - PRLog -- LIVING LEGACY PROJECT
Changing the World One Story at a Time

OUR MISSION IS TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO GATHER AND PRESERVE THEIR FAMILY HISTORY AS PART OF THE WORLDWIDE LIVING LEGACY PROJECT.  

To do this we are building an army of personal legacy advisors to inform and inspire communities around Australia & New Zealand.              
                                 
Adelaide, (May 21, 2011) – “The Living Legacy Project aims to save the living history of our times before the people who made it (our parents, grandparents and great grandparents) pass on” said Annie Payne, one of the international team of developers of the program.

“To make this happen we are recruiting an army of Personal Legacy Advisors around Australia and New Zealand to inform and inspire both families and the community” Annie went on to say. “By utilizing modern technology and online resources Advisors will help families collect and save their family heritage - making history by preserving history” she added.

The Project’s urgency is based on the fact that baby boomers and their parents are passing away by the thousands each day, taking with them the greatest body of wisdom in human history. Additionally, they were the first to record their milestone events in photographs and other old media such as reel-to-reel audio and video tapes, etc. This valuable media is rapidly deteriorating and represents the recorded personal history of the 20th century.

Taking action to save this wisdom and media is paramount to building a legacy. A recent U.S. survey reveals that these two generations believe it is far more important to pass on life lessons and values than their money. Yet, less than 1% of the population has actually written and saved their personal history. The tragedy is that, when asked, more than 30% of families agree it is important but nothing is done.

The Living Legacy Project uses trained ‘Personal Legacy Advisors’ to help overcome this stalemate. The Advisors add a friendly local and personal element by staying in contact with participants and helping them to overcome “road blocks”; for instance, digitizing media, dealing with sensitive family issues where family members are more relaxed talking to a third party, preparing scripted interviews - the permutations are many.

“Utilizing the Project’s archive and social media website (LegacyStories.org) will help bridge the skills gap as well as the generation gap” said Annie.  “In many families there is a special bond between children and their grandparents and with children today being so computer savvy they can make up for what their Gran and Granddad never learned” Annie added.” The children will love to help record the stories and then upload them to the private vault.”

“As the ‘defacto’ family story keeper the involvement of the children relieves Mum of having to do it all herself and this is crucial" said Annie "because this is not a sprint or a competition, it is an ongoing process and a story a month will soon build a meaningful legacy”  

By encouraging participants in this way Personal Legacy Advisors will help to insure families when tragedy strikes or time starts running out. “These are the calls I dread” remarked Annie “All of a sudden there is great urgency and it is impossible to make up for lost time. If only…if only is something we hear too often” Annie added.

“Nobody reflects on the importance of their contribution to family, community and nation more than people who are in their final years of life. That’s what makes our Project special”, says Annie. “Add to that an exciting social network environment to share family stories and we can inspire individuals, families, communities and, hopefully, nations”  

In addition to launching the project in the Australia, the major U.S. launch also occurs this week. These will be the first of a number of global launches taking place over the next few months.

The Project was developed by The International Association of StoryKeepers, (I-ASK), founded by Dennis Stack and Tom Cormier in the U.S. 5 years ago. Annie Payne has been the I-ASK Australian Ambassador for the last three years and has contributed to the development of the program over this period.

I-ASK is currently building an “army” of trained Professional Legacy Advisors (PLAs) in many countries. They will come from a variety of professional backgrounds, mostly in legacy fields such as genealogy, photography, biography but also former nurses, teachers and social workers. By joining the Project those already in business will find new clients and opportunities to expand and generate additional income.

The Project’s website is http://www.legacystories.org.

I-ASK was formed in 2006 by co-founders Dennis Stack and Tom Cormier. The association is the only ‘umbrella’ organization where all legacy professions are represented in a referral-based network. The mission is to develop programs to assist the legacy community in generating new business and to make preserving family history a priority in the community at large. I-ASK rewards PLAs with financial incentives which can be a useful second income to many.

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Our mission is to motivate people to gather and preserve their family history as part of the worldwide Living Legacy Project. To do this we are building an army of Personal Legacy Advisors to inform and inspire communities around Australia & New Zealand.