Using Intergenerational Contact to Improve America’s Attitudes toward Elders and Aging www.legaciesproject.org
Nice Work Public Media (501c3 status pending) 1328 Pontiac Trail Ann Arbor, MI		Assisted living facilities. Senior housing. Nursing homes. The spectrum of so-called “non-community” elder care is often regarded as a slippery slope toward irrelevance and isolation. Too often, elders in America view non-community dwellings as “god’s waiting room,” the place where they’re warehoused as they’re waiting to die. The Legacies Project is a powerful plan to flip that definition, reframing senior communities as treasure troves of accumulated wisdom and first-hand knowledge of historical events, and as a goldmine of fascinating stories. This multifaceted cultural project will gather valuable oral, primary source accounts of a generation’s major events from the people who witnessed history in the making, and use the process of capturing this data to change American attitudes toward elders and aging. To fully mine the value to American culture that lies locked in the experience of its seniors, this project posits a grand vision: to undertake a vast, public, widely accessible, primary-source, fully cataloged oral history – an intergenerational coming-together in which young people use digital technology to capture and catalog the stories and experiences of seniors. As a practical sequence of events, The Legacies Project encompasses three main activities: YOUTH OUTREACH – Curricula will be developed to make sure students are prepared to conduct a series of interviews that will have historical relevance to future generations, how to accurately keyword-catalogue the content, how to safely and appropriately navigate the interview environment, and how to properly operate lighting and digital video and audio equipment. TELEVISION SPECIALS – Quarterly documentaries, made from selected field tapes shot by youth volunteers and augmented by original documentary shooting, motivate the students, elevate awareness among the public… and make for great television storytelling! Personal archives of home films and videos, personal photos, and supporting interviews flesh out primary accounts, which can be grouped around themes and events of historical importance. DATA ARCHIVING – All source digital video and audio will be converted into compressed electronic data that can be stored on computers, burned to CD, streamed over the web, and copied without decay. All data will be keyworded for easy retrieval of primary source accounts of history and culture. But perhaps the greatest potential in The Legacies Project is to encourage a reassessment of American attitudes on aging – in the best way possible. Not by preaching. Not by forcing. But by creating impetus for a huge volume of extended individual, intergenerational exchanges. A confused kid might find a mentor. A lonely senior might be visited and feel valued. And it might happen again, and again, and again. The possibilities – and the stories – are endless. http://www.nicework.tv info@legaciesproject.org