Mama's Dying Days

the Glue That Holds Us Together

Florence : My Polish Love

Thousands of WW2 veterans are passing away each day and taking their stories with them. Every 70 seconds another victim is claimed by Alzheimer's Disease and the clock begins to tick away the memories that unless captured will be lost forever. Entire Native American languages are vanishing every year. African Americans are losing the only connection to their past in an already fractured family structure. And, the last of the Holocaust survivors are nearly gone.

Contained within these stories are life experiences that strengthen and inspire generations......arguably the greatest body of wisdom ever to grace our planet and an essential part of American Heritage and World Heritage. If we do not address this loss aggressively, especially with today's technology available at our fingertips, it could be our greatest regret.

What is needed is an efficient 'story collection, archiving and training' process that can be scaled to national and worldwide proportions. Founded in 2003, Project StoryKeeper has trained thousands of volunteer and professional 'StoryKeepers' to efficiently record, archive and share oral biographies and family media. Using a unique interview and archiving process, our certified StoryKeepers have recorded oral biographies from citizens in over 800 hospices, elder care facilities and VA hospitals.

Our story-collection process and platform is by far the most efficient and scalable available today. Considered the industry's gold standard it is currently being integrated into the curriculums of universities and high schools as part of their service learning programs.

Some of our projects are listed below :

Veteran History Project

Project StoryKeeper in collaboration with the Veterans History Project, sponsored by the Library of Congress is training volunteer storykeepers to aid in the effort to collect and archive the oral histories of veterans and their time of service to the country. These collected oral histories will be available to future generations to learn first hand from those who lived the experience. World War II veterans are departing from us at an alarming rate. It is critical that we get as many storykeepers working to save their stories and experience while we can. Of no less importance are those stories of other veterans who served at different times and different theatres of conflict. Enabling these veterans to tell their story, to make a difference in the future of our great nation, to continue to serve with distinction, helps them to overcome issues that continue to haunt them. Honor and respect is something that they readily understand and greatly deserve. More..........

Project Alzheimers

Every 71 seconds another person develops Alzheimer's disease. Also every 71 seconds someone discovers that they are now the primary caregiver for an Alzheimer's victim. As the disease progresses the patient becomes less aware of their circumstance while the problems and concerns for the caregiver only mount. Project StoryKeeper - Alzheimer's is designed to be an intervention program, training the caregivers how to capture the life story of the patient. This training will enable the Caregiver to start immediately preserving the memories, experience and wisdom of the patient before the disease wipes it all away. There is strong anecdotal evidence that this process can also help to retard the advance of the disease through the cognitive exercise the program utilizes in the reminiscing process.

Project Hospice StoryKeeper

Everyone has a story to tell. Project Hospice StoryKeeper is concerned about those who have more stories to tell than time to tell them. We call them, 'endangered stories'.

The goal of Project Hospice StoryKeeper is to provide training to hospice organizations and their volunteers in Legacy Preservation. Preserving family legacies through performing 'life review' interviews helps families to build their private family archives through which they can share and build their heritage. We believe that families well grounded in their heritage are better able to withstand the forces in society that tear at the family structure. The StoryKeeper process has ancillary benefits for the StoryTeller; helping them to regain their sense of purpose and a vital role within the family structure.

Project Native American

We are in the process of building a program to record the oral histories of Native Americans. Values, Traditions and even dialects are being lost every year. It is our goal to record the languages, culture and voice of our original American ancestors.

Project Holocaust

A shrinking number of our citizens have experienced one of the greatest tragedies of our time, the Holocaust. Today those who were very young at the time are entering their later years. When they are gone only their photos and children will survive. Project Holocaust will train key facilitators in Jewish associations, groups, synagogues, and communities how to record these stories before they are lost forever.

Project African American

There is a disconnect between younger African Americans and their elders today. Yet as they become middle aged they will want to know who their grandparents were and what they were like. They need to understand and hear the words directly from their source, their struggles to survive and succeed through the challenges society presented them. Oral recorded stories provide the voice and personality of the storyteller. In their own words African American elders can tell the stories of their great grandparents. These stories will be lost for ever if they are not recorded soon.

Project African American is a dedicated project requiring sponsorship to capture these life stories. We will train groups of people in targeted areas who can go into the community and preserve these precious memories for future generations.

Project Service Learning

This project is aimed at training students in High Schools, Colleges, and Universities to become StoryKeepers for their communities. This is accomplished through the synergies stemming from our Intergenerational Co-curricular Service Learning Program (ICSL). The ICSL combines course curriculum with opportunities to serve their community. In this case students learn StoryKeeper skills and practice those skills with elderly in their community. The result of this activity enhances the quality of life for the elderly and builds a legacy for their family. The students get course credit and gain a new perspective on their own life. The faculty gets an opportunity to provide real world application to the theories they teach in class. The school performs a meaningful service for their community and develops a fundraising source that sustains the program. Project StoryKeeper TM benefits from building a large, skilled volunteer force that will benefit all our other projects.

Project Family Connections

The objective of Project Family Connections is to provide the platform and training to volunteers to facilitate recording the life stories of thousands of elderly seniors and establishing private family networks. Once these networks are established in the Treasury of Family Heritage the volunteers will train the seniors how to utilize their network allowing them to re-connect with their family in meaningful and productive ways. We believe that providing this service will give voice to family members who have been unintentionally excluded. We are in effect Re-Inventing the Extended Family