INSPIRATION In the United States alone, tens of thousands of baby boomers and their parents pass away each day, taking with them, arguably, the greatest body of wisdom in history.
With today's increasingly disconnected families, there has never been a time when these life lessons, values and traditions are needed more. And with today's technology, there is no excuse to let this valuable living history slip away. To answer the call, we have accepted this ambitious challenge.
The most endangered life stories belong to our elders, sadly the least tech savvy and often deal with memory issues. With time of the essence, we developed a four-pronged rescue operation to efficiently identify, record, archive and share the most meaningful life stories (legacy stories) that can have the greatest impact on future generations.
HOW IT WORKS
The four key elements to our rescue mission are described in detail below:
1 Legacy Talks- This engaging, interactive activity was developed through five years of field testing a variety of life story interview techniques, with 5,000+ caregivers and their aging loved ones. Our research found that the vast majority of seniors are uncomfortable telling their life stories. Humility, belief they have not lived an interesting life, and not a good storyteller, are the main reasons.
Working with memory care providers, we found that vintage family photos were the ideal trigger to instantly open up the conversation. We then established Legacy Talks' best practices for "reminiscing with a purpose", carefully selecting photos that represent important family history, defining moments and milestone events. Recording these highest priority reminiscences, and organizing them chronologically, became the foundation of the Legacy Talks activ.
2 Mobile App- With the Legacy Talks procedures and techniques in place, we developed the recording mechanism, an easy-to-use mobile app that essentially scans the photo, records the narrator's voice and uploads "Pict-Oral Memories" to the LegacyStories.org Living History Library.
3 LegacyStories.org- The third component to our four-pronged strategy is a searchable online archive, where families can upload, store and discriminately share their highest priority life stories, and LegacyStories.org serves that purpose in a secure, family history environment.
The site offers 1 GB of free storage, enough space to store up to 500 Pict-Oral Memories per member. This is why groups and organizations eagerly embrace Legacy Talks.
LegacyStories.org was the first web application to receive TreeConnect certification with FamilySearch. People can use our mobile app to give voice to ancestor photos, then upload and link them to ancestor records in FamilySearch's FamilyTree. People can also upload photos from their mobile device or computer and use the site's web voice recorder to narrate the photos.
Not to be ignored, the site also offers multimedia story pages for people who enjoy composing life stories, separate sharing networks, one each for family and friends, and five privacy options.
4 International Assoc.of StoryKeepers (I-ASK)- The fourth and final component of our strategy is the founding of I-ASK, a global network of legacy advisors, trained to assist families, groups, organizations and care providers with all matters legacy. Recognizing that most people are unaware of the vulnerability of legacy assets in their possession, they deliver legacy awareness presentations to groups of all kinds, and help implement Legacy Talks.
With boots-on-the-ground to help facilitate the implementation of Legacy Talks programs, far more life stories can be rescued and saved.
CHALLENGES I RAN INTO
In a recent survey conducted by The Allianz American Legacy Study, baby boomers and their parents were asked to prioritize the importance of assets when passing down an inheritance. 77% ranked life lessons and values as their top priority assets, far above financial assets.
Despite the perceived importance of passing on a meaningful legacy, only a small fraction of these generations have made any provisions to record and preserve their legacy stories. The primary reasons for this are due to the fact that most are unaware of what can and should be done, and procrastinating once they become aware.
The nearly ubiquitous presence of mobile apps has helped to solve this problem. However, as clever as many apps are, once the novelty wears off, they become just another icon on one of the device's home screens.
The challenge to get people started collecting their family history is great. Sustaining their interest is the far greater challenge. By enabling motivated stakeholders such as: care providers, estate planners, legacy advisors, organizations, and special interest groups, we can introduce Legacy Talks to their constituents, thereby maintaining momentum more reliably and consistently.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS THAT I'M PROUD OF
To rescue the most vulnerable "legacy stories", our priority is to provide legacy tools, training and support to more than 65 million U.S. caregivers. They are the one’s who have the greatest incentive and urgency to record life stories of loved ones. We are proud that Legacy Talks has been well received by care providers since the outset, which validates our strategy in this most vital genre.
Between the Legacy Talks activity and the intuitive mobile app, we provide caregivers time-sensitive best practices to record the valuable family history of those they serve. Legacy Talks has recently been embraced by Visiting Angels, the nation's 3rd largest home care provider, with 500+ agencies, paving the way for others to follow.
Legacy Talks is also being embraced beyond the caregiver community. We have adapted Legacy Talks to help groups, organizations and communities give their constituents a chance to become integral parts of their group's history. This is accomplished by creating a group's "library within our library", where their constituents can record, connect and share niche-related legacy stories via the mobile app and website.
Current pilot projects include:
- United Methodist Church Faith Stories Project
- LDS Ward Legacy Project (9 wards)
- Taylor Family Association (Largest LDS family)
- Salem Utah Community Pict-Oral History Project
- Lewiston Maine Pict-Oral History Project
- Sons of the American Revolution (national)
- Senior Story Circles of Australia (supported by government grants)
Most of these projects are just getting under way and are expected to grow dramatically in 2015. Many others are in development, thanks to our I-ASK advisors. As pilot programs start to gain traction and publicity in the next few months, others in each niche will surely follow, expanding our reach where it matters most.
We have recently adapted Legacy Talks for estate and financial planners to offer their clients the "values side" of an holistic estate plan. As the first service of its kind in this vertical, we have recently been awarded status of authorized member benefits provider for the National Association of Estate Planners and Councils, (NAEPC), serving over 25,000 estate planners.
Last, but certainly not least, the genealogy community has rightfully been focused on preserving data from our past but is now appreciating the need to collect contextual content from the present to enhance genealogical research in the future. This is a significant shift in focus and we have positioned our programs and technology to provide state-of-the-art life stories education, tools and support to accommodate this emerging trend.
As the first web app to become a Certified TreeConnect partner with FamilySearch, our app and website are now accessible in over 4600 Family History Centers. Our legacy advisors regularly work with these centers to teach our technology and programs, with more being deployed all over the world.
By building spheres of influence in all of the above verticals, we can rescue the endangered legacy stories for the greatest number of people, in the shortest timeframe, without geographic impediments.
SUSTAINING THE MISSION
To sustain and grow the mission, we developed multiple Legacy Talks continuity-based, revenue funnels for: elder care providers, estate planners, funeral directors, and others. In addition, we provide continuity-based training and support for I-ASK legacy advisors. For products, we offer LegacyStories.org premium upgrades and the opportunity to convert Pict-Oral collections into 100-year archival Pict-Oral Memoir heirloom DVDs.
CLOSING
After more than five years building the architecture and infrastructure for this ambitious project, seeding content and proving the concept, we are finally ready to emerge from under the radar with a hard launch at the 2015 RootsTech Conference.
If you are looking a big idea that can make tremendous difference engaging people in family history, this is it. Collectively, we have built a scalable system to rescue, record, archive and share the living history of our time. When grandma gets involved, the rest of the family follows. When group leaders launch their Legacy Talks Pict-Oral History Projects, members will participate.
With publicity from RootsTech and our partnership with FamilySearch and other synergistic national organizations, we can rescue more family history before it is lost forever. Now it's time to turn up the volume and make a measurable and meaningful difference for our grandchildren and civilization as a whole.
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