The big picture obviously has a lot of pieces. What are they? Which are most important? How do they fit together? Can they fit together in more than one way?

Creative new approaches to lifelong learning that look at the big picture foster more real solutions, inventions, discoveries – and more hope. The Legacy Project is about education that goes beyond boundaries and specialization, grades and age, politics and trends. We take a big-picture, systems, seven-generation approach.

Our educational work centers on the concept of legacy, which is fundamentally the most powerful concept we have for addressing the challenges of the twenty-first century. Legacy at its worst is a burden across time;
at its best, it is a gift.

Legacy is the coming together of what you have been given, what you create, and what you give back. As the Legacy Project logo suggests, our lives can be a path along which we ask questions and make choices that have both short-term and long-term consequences on personal and social levels. The questions we ask and the answers we find determine the kind of life we create for ourselves, the depth of the connections we have with others, and the ways we can change our world. Our legacy evolves as we move from childhood through adolescence to young adulthood and older adulthood.

Informed by research in the natural and social sciences, the Legacy Project brings together diverse ideas. We are a nonideological, grassroots, cooperative community project. We work with a number of Partners, including the nonprofit Generations United, based in Washington, DC. Working out of both Washington, DC and Toronto, Canada, the Legacy Project runs its programs across the US and Canada, and connects people around the globe.

We reach children, teens, adults, and elders. Participants include individuals, families, schools, community groups and other organizations.

We are largely self-sustaining through sales of our books and other program materials, and through workshops. Educator Susan V. Bosak, MA, helped found the Legacy Project and currently serves as its Chair.

The Legacy Project's three banner programs reflect the three levels at which each of us evolves our legacy through our lifetime. LifeDreams explores individual potential and creating your life, from childhood through older adulthood. Across Generations explores our connections with others – particularly the personal histories, heritages, traditions, memories, values, hopes, and life lessons passed from generation to generation – and encourages closer relationships between generations.
Our World explores the world around us and our role in it, looking at how each of us can help change the world to address issues like community building and the environment.

The Legacy Project develops books as well as other resources. Our latest award-winning bestseller is Dream. Our free online activities and guides offer special reports, articles, tips and other resources.

We run essay contests throughout the year for both children and adults. The Dream Exhibit is currently traveling to museums and galleries in various cities. Workshops and school visits also take place across the US and Canada, and we can arrange a custom workshop for your school, group, or organization. Young people and adults can create a Life Statement, and then record and share it through our permanent online Life Statement Library.

Our major community initiatives include Legacy Community Building and TreeKeepers.

The Legacy Center with its 15-acre arboretum is the focal point of the Legacy Project's activities. Guided by our international Advisory Board, it's an inspiring education and research center offering a variety of workshops. The Legacy Center encourages new perspectives, engages in ongoing research, and embodies the best thinking on environmental and design issues.

You can become a member of the Legacy Project, join a dynamic online learning community, and help support our educational work.

Get connected and be the first to find out what's new! Get the latest information about Legacy Project programs, free online activities and guides, books, essay contests, and more by subscribing to our free quarterly e-newsletter.

Here are some thoughts that guide us and that you may find interesting...

"Learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then – to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."
Terence H. White in
The Once and Future King

"A newborn infant babbles, gurgles, wriggles, and reaches out to touch the world. Each day of life commemorates that very first day. Each day you and I reach out to our surroundings and wonder. We are human and we are wonderers."
Joe Abruscato

"Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do."
William Ellery Channing

"Some people have made great additions to the knowledge and the skills of humanity. These contributions to the inheritance of humankind may have been much greater than that of others, but we can never say that the effects of any life, however unseen they may be, are nothing. Day by day each life affects many others; the ripples from the existence of one pass outwards touching and shaping the lives of many, both known and unknown."
Margaret Laws Smith

"Those who do not look upon themselves as links connecting the past with the future do not perform their duty to the world."
Daniel Webster

"Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I've got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
George Bernard Shaw

"Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds, will continue in others."
Rosa Parks

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Mohandas Gandhi

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."
Robert Byrne

"Hitch your wagon to a star."
Ralph Waldo Emerson