Children’s lives need to be seen (and cared for) as wholes. Lives are saved by how their communities care for them. A package approach is needed. Medical services are needed, but a great deal can be done to prevent children from getting sick. Education is key, especially education of mothers who then with other mothers create caring groups throughout the community.

The foundation of all communities is their values. Enduring and treasured values come from each community’s heritage. When values from the past are the foundation that guide a community’s way into the future, what is carried forward is, of course, culture and heritage, but more powerful is pride. With community pride comes power. From community power comes empowerment.

SEED-SCALE learned by students at Future Generations has extended from these individuals to lead their communities forward.

Future Generations advances a more effective approach to peace. “Help the Good Guys”. Most commonly used nowadays to end violence is “Go after the Bad Guys (if needed, kill them.)”

Tragically, and too often, instead of ending violence, the result becomes war. Violence is real; seemingly it grows larger– but so can peace when what is used is this more effective, positivist approach.

Future Generations’ home-centered health track originates in the research of Carl E. Taylor (founding chairman of International Health at Johns Hopkins University). Carl was also a co-founder of Future Generations. In 1978, he co-authored the background paper for the World Conference on Primary Health that advanced methods by which to achieve “Health for All.”

The focus must be on mothers, as the “Number 1 health care providers.” Care must first center in the home as the “Number 1 health care facility.” This yields health’s most powerful intervention: behavior change.

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Rural communities worldwide tend to be outside the zones of economic growth. They seem to experience a lower developmental momentum in a world of electronic and technological accelerations. In many cases, their traditional agricultural bases are also stretched.

Students interested in rural communities can learn how to stimulate growth in these places. The greatest asset of rural people is their long-proven work ethic and self-reliance. These are the ideal assets to mobilize with the SEED-SCALE method that students learn at Future Generations.

Clean water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning, as well as access to hygienic sanitation systems, is the difference between life and death for millions of people around the world. For this reason, many NGOs and non-profits prioritize establishing water and sanitation systems in rural areas of developing nations, allocating a lot of funding and staffing to these efforts. Many of our graduates work in this important field, and have been able to transform their professional approaches by integrating community mobilization and empowerment strategies into more traditional development practices. This can in turn save costs and, by creating a groundwork for more inclusive, sustainable change, also save more lives.

Though women make up more than 1/2 of the human population, many still face enormous barriers to being able to control their futures and the wellbeing of their families. Our graduates have worked directly with women in marginalized communities to usher them through the empowerment process, so that they can command increasing control over their finances and other life circumstances. Through community change efforts, women across the world are becoming able to tell their own stories and direct their lives toward more hopeful horizons.

The environment is everywhere, and protecting it goes far beyond creating national parks. Working from where you are, wherever that may be, you can improve the environment by bringing together the commitment of those who live there.

This Future Generations approach launched national parks on both sides of Mount Everest (Tibet/China and Nepal). This approach advances a you-can-do-it-also approach for the highest priority on Earth, extending from this model that is the highest place on Earth. For an example of how one alumnus built on the work of Future Generations’ co-founder Carl Taylor in the Everest national parks, see the work of Norbu.

Read about the inspiring work past students have completed in their communities as their capstone project!

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