Legacy Project Education Initiative (LPEI)
LPEI transforms the lives of GLBT youth by restoring their history, stemming the tide of isolation and ignorance from which suicide and bullying spring.
About You
About You
First Name
Victor
Last Name
Salvo
Twitter URL
Facebook URL
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Legacy-Project/124794807576962
About Your Organization
Organization Name
THE LEGACY PROJECT
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, IL, Cook County
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, IL, Cook County
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
After-School Provider, Other.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
The cultural marginalization of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) youth -- who are forced to grow-up without historically significant role models, leading to dangerous social isolation and a climate of ignorance from which anti-gay bullying springs.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
The Legacy Project is creating an outdoor international walking museum called “THE LEGACY WALK” to celebrate the contributions GLBT people have made to world history and culture. It will be dedicated in Chicago, Illinois on October 11, 2012 and will be the only exhibit of its kind in the world. As an adjunct to The Legacy Walk, we are instituting the LEGACY PROJECT EDUCATION INITIATIVE (LPEI) to bring the story of these contributions into the classroom. The LPEI is being developed in conjunction with a major teaching university and will be introduced into the Illinois Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) network beginning in the fall of 2012, to coincide with the dedication of The Legacy Walk.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
The LPEI will consist of a ‘zine-sized companion workbook featuring the Inductees to The Legacy Walk along with reading resources, suggested classroom exercises, and topics for discussion all centered on helping GLBT youth to understand the societal challenges faced by their forebears in their efforts to achieve their goals, often at great personal risk. We intend to turn the discussion of GLBT history into a transformative experience that will help GLBT youth and their straight allies to empathize with those struggles and externalize those lessons. By incorporating multi-media, web-based research tools, and classroom-enhanced social media technology, we hope to direct students’ newfound knowledge into social awareness and action. Since our nominees and inductees represent multiple disciplines and educational fields of interest, we will ensure that these experiences reach a wider audience, in a variety of classroom settings, by fashioning our teaching tools so that instructors outside the GSA network will be able to incorporate discussion of GLBT role models into their own classrooms.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Unfortunately there are no real competitors in the marketplace trying to teach this subject matter to GLBT youth at the secondary level. What educational materials do exist are tailored toward higher-education. The advent of the State of California’s recently implemented GLBT Social Studies mandate has prompted a scramble to develop these materials. We are working with the San Francisco-based GSANetwork to share what materials do exist. It is our hope that we will be able to evolve our curriculum model into a fully-realized textbook that will help other schools address this need in the future.
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
LPEI will restore GLBT history for at-risk youth, stemming the tide of isolation and ignorance from which suicide and bullying spring.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
The world’s only GLBT museum walk and the LPEI’s education technology and social media will transform the way history is taught.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
The uniqueness of The Legacy Walk outdoor international GLBT museum walk has prompted a great deal of public interest in GLBT History; we are already advancing the discussion about how – and why – that history has been redacted from our textbooks. The Legacy Project and our plans for the LPEI have been universally received with accolades and pledges of help to create the curriculum and teaching materials. To date over 22,000 people have visited our website to explore our nominees and inductees, to nominate new people, and to offer their insight. The addition of the LPEI will complete our multi-faceted effort to place the contributions of GLBT people into the public’s consciousness and into lives of GLBT youth.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
Our goal is to introduce the LPEI in a pilot-program at two-dozen Illinois high schools with Gay-Straight Alliances in 2012 – impacting the lives of about 700 GLBT youth and their allies. By incorporating the feedback of youth and their advisors back into the program, we hope to double the project’s scope in 2013 and to publish an enhanced text compendium and custom on-line resources to assist adaptation of our efforts for schools outside of Illinois. By 2014 our hope is to participate in the creation of a full digital textbook with classroom exercises that have been moulded by student input.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
The ‘zine-styled LPEI companion workbook will be nearly completed and the first schools will be chosen.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Locate existing exercises/course materials for The Legacy Walk Inductees to adapt to our needs.
Task 2
Write the exercises and course work for those Inductees we could not find existing materials on.
Task 3
Identify resources to pay for these materials - high school GSAs get no funding so we have to provide them for free.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
In twelve months we will be working with GLBT youth to rewrite and expand our tools for 2013.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Analyze survey data from GLBT youth participants to inform the changes we will need to make to the program.
Task 2
Expand our outreach to additional schools to broaden the program’s scope for 2013.
Task 3
Craft a new companion text, new multi-media tools and new on-line resources to keep the program fresh.
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
Two years ago we were sharing the story of history of The Legacy Project and The Legacy Walk with one of the most established (and hardened) GLBT Rights activists in Chicago. He listened intently and then, when he began to speak, he started crying. He explained about how much a program like this would have meant to him as a child. Like many of us, he had been abused and bullied and had tried to commit suicide when he was a teenager. He extolled the importance of the project and suggested adapting it into a classroom module targeting GLBT youth who would then be able to travel to see the exhibit in person. Soon teachers were being consulted and the LPEI was born!
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
The City of Chicago and the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance are our co-sponsors. Neither is contributing financially, however, only oversight and network access. Our real partners are the plaque sponsors and underwriters whose donations will be making the physical creation of The Legacy Walk possible. Once we are established, the fundraising dynamic will change because we will move from the “high-concept” stage to a fully-realized physical exhibit which people, businesses and foundations will see as viable.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
Presently we have only one paid staff person – the Executive Director – and nine active board members who have skills across a spectrum of industries with contacts and experience that are vital to our development from fundraising to city government, from public relations to organizational development, from education to historic research. In addition to these individuals, we have a small army of seasoned volunteers who assist with research, writing, development and staffing of special events.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
We are primarily in need of financial support to get the LPEI off the ground this first year; but we could also use any educational resource materials that other Changemakers might have at their disposal to help us craft the written and multi-media tools we will need for the project.
 | 10 weeks agoEdwin Rutsch said: thanks for the reply. about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 10 weeks agoVictor Salvo said: By bringing the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people to world history and culture directly into the ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 10 weeks agoEdwin Rutsch said: In just a sentence or two, would you share what you see as the most effective way your program is building, fostering or nurturing a ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 17 weeks agoVictor Salvo updated this Competition Entry. |
| 17 weeks agoVictor Salvo updated this Competition Entry. |
| 17 weeks agoVictor Salvo submitted this idea. |
