About this course

This course will train you and your students, campers – or whomever – in everything you’ll need to videotape, over multiple sessions, the first-person narratives of senior citizens/narrators and add them to our constantly growing, user-friendly, archive that will be a valuable resource for researchers, gerontologists, historians, and the general public for years to come.

And while editing together a short video of some aspect of a narrator’s life and having a screening of the finished stories is strictly optional, we’ll show you how to do that too.

Good for young people

Young people who’ve gone through the Legacies Project invariably enjoy the experience and learn a lot in the process. The stories they hear from their narrators can be funny, tragic, sad, joyful, inspirational, and even life-changing. And the relationships that form during the interview process often continue on long after the project is over.

Good for senior narrators

The accumulated stories of our senior citizens make them a unique cultural treasure. And the very act of telling others about their experiences has real therapeutic value for them. For some seniors, having regular visits to look forward to lessens feelings of isolation and loneliness. And, as seniors progress toward end of life, knowing their stories were valued and will be preserved creates a comforting sense of legacy for them. After all, it’s nice to be remembered.

Good for communities

Legacies connects young people with an existing but under-realized resource: their community’s senior citizens/narrators. The Legacies Project values community elders’ wisdom and life lessons by capturing their experiences for posterity. Because the Legacies Project is always intergenerational, being involved in the Project creates connections between two groups that often don’t have much contact with one another. Young people find mentors, new relationships form and a community’s history and traditions are passed from one generation to another.