B.T.W.E.N. programs inspire
participants to:
 | Embrace Your Life | |
| Story | ||
| Increase Self-Worth | |
| Discover Confidence | |
| Strengthen Character | |
| Build Healthy | |
| Relationships | ||
| Uncover Life's Purpose | |
| Make a Difference | |
| BTWEN's Programs |
PROJECT LEGACY
CONNECTING THE PAST TO INSPIRE THE FUTURE
Project Legacy, a youth development, character education/leadership program for inner-city youth,
ages 15 to18-years-old. Project Legacy gets youth excited about their history, and in turn, their
education. Project Legacy is made up of 1.) Character education and leadership workshops, 2.) One-on-
one mentoring, 3.) Case management for youth and others significant to their success, i.e. parents,
guardians, siblings, and 4.) Community service projects, and 5.) And local and national travel, including
an 8-day freedom journey across the country following in the footsteps of Booker T. Washington from
slavery to freedom.
FREEDOM JOURNEY
Begins at Booker T. Washington’s birthplace in Franklin County, Virginia, where he was born a slave.
Then we move on to West Virginia, where he lived, and worked in coal mines as a boy, immediately
following slavery.
From there we travel to Hampton University in Virginia, where Washington gained his formal education.
The youth will also travel to Washington DC, where Washington was the first African-American to dine
at the White House, at the invitation of President Roosevelt.
And on to Tuskegee Alabama, where he opened a school where former slaves and their descendants
could get an education, today known as Tuskegee University.
(Each stop along the trip is a national historic monument.)
Continuing to espouse the teachings of Booker T. Washington in the area of leadership and hard work, at
the end of Project Legacy each participant will be responsible for going back to their communities to
volunteer in an area where they feel they have gained strength.
PROJECT “LEGACY 2”
Throughout the year, Project “Legacy,” will reach thousands of men, women, and children by delivering
speeches, psycho-educational workshops, and book readings given by Sarah Washington O’Neal Rush,
the Executive Director of B.T.W.E.N., and the great-granddaughter of Booker T. Washington.
Project “Legacy” will reach out to the following organizations: elementary, middle, and high schools
(individual classrooms and entire student bodies); foster care agencies; courts; welfare-to-work
programs; pregnant teen programs; youth organizations; recovery programs; social service agencies;
and various other community based organizations.
As the great-granddaughter of Booker T. Washington, an author, and a mental health professional, who
has risen above tremendous personal circumstances, Ms. Rush is a nationally sought out speaker on
the Booker T. Washington legacy, and rising above difficulties.
Presentations include parallels between her great-grandfather’s story of rising above slavery to
becoming a famous leader, and the founder of Tuskegee University, and her own personal journey—
from being a single teenage mother, to living on her own at the age of seventeen in a housing project in
East Oakland, to coming off of welfare and government subsidized housing, to becoming a published
author, business owner, and earning a Master’s degree in professional psychology.
Project “Legacy” will provide lessons from the rich history of Booker T. Washington, and other multi-
ethnic ancestral leaders who have achieved success against extremely adverse odds. Realizing the
great influence on self-worth that comes from learning about family history, Project “Legacy” will also
highlight the benefits and give resource information, and techniques on how to explore ones’ own
ancestry, as well as the teaching the importance of going back into the community to pass on historical
learning.
One cannot hold another down in the ditch without staying down in the ditch with him, and in
helping the man who is down to rise, the man who is up is freeing himself from a burden that
would else drag him down. For the man who is down, there is always something to hope for,
always something to be gained. Booker T. Washington
helping the man who is down to rise, the man who is up is freeing himself from a burden that
would else drag him down. For the man who is down, there is always something to hope for,
always something to be gained. Booker T. Washington
Copyright © 2009 BTWEN, Inc. All Rights Reserved
BTWEN, P.O. Box 2325, Oakland, CA 94621-1411, 510.278.1634
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| Booker T. Washington Empowerment Network, BTWEN Empowering ordinary people to achieve extraordinary legacies A 501 (c) 3 Nonprofit organization founded by the great-granddaughter of Booker T. Washington |
| A 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization |