What exactly does Touch the Future do and who do we serve?
Our efforts result in the design, development and distribution of communication tools: films, video presentations, print publications, CD/DVD; conferences, workshops and on-line technologies that bridge the gap between the visionary research and educational community and mainstream parents, teachers, childcare providers and amateur athletic coaches. Our goal is to foster optimum learning, performance and well-being in all phases and stages of the adult-child relationship.

What do we mean by the "visionary research and educational" community?
The visionaries we speak of are those usually operating outside of mainstream organizations and systems. Innovations occur most often on the edges of culture. Traditionally it takes a full generation, twenty-eight years, for new ideas to be accepted and expressed in the mainstream. Our programs help shorten the gap between insight, innovation and application.

What is the driving force or inspiration behind the organization?
Central to our work is an appreciation of the profound way each adult touches the future through the model they present to children every day. Our focus is on the dynamic and reciprocal nature of the adult-child relationship. It is the nature and quality of this fundamental relationship that defines the vast majority of learning and human development.

How are we funded?
Funding for our efforts was received from California's Children and Families First Commission, the Fetzer Institute, Brio Toys, San Diego Community Foundation, Merrill Lynch Corporation, the John Schattner Family Foundation, The Lenni Cooper Foundation, Alberta B. Frington Foundation, among others. The majority of our funding, however, comes from individuals who appreciate unique value of our work. Nonprofit funding is never easy. Ours is more challenging given the "cutting edge" nature of our work. Some of our best work is accomplished on the edge and appeals to individuals who appreciate a willingness to risk.

What are Touch the Future's major accomplishments?

• Spanning a decade we have gathered over fifty interviews with leading visionaries in the field of child and human development and published many of these in our quarterly newsletter.
• Organized and hosted semi-annual Dialogues on the east and west coasts based on the views and on our personal relationship with theoretical physicist David Bohm.
• Organized and hosted Learning Without Limits, a national educational conference on optimum learning, performance and wellness.
• Organized and hosted Zero to Five, the Early Child, a lecture series on new parent support models, child-care and development with California's Children & Families First Commission.
• Produced and distributed Reaching Beyond Magical Child, six-hour video series featuring Joseph Chilton Pearce.
• Organized and hosted an invitational symposium Discovering the Intelligence of Play and produced a ninety-minute video from that event featuring Joseph Chilton Pearce, O. Fred Donaldson, PhD., James W. Prescott, PhD., Stuart Brown, MD., and Chuck Hogan.
• Produced and distributed Babies Know More Than You Think, a one-hour video program featuring David Chamberlain, PhD., and Suzanne Arms on pre-natal learning and memory.
• Created, maintain, and update ttfuture.org, one of the most comprehensive web sites on child and human development on the Internet.
• Formed and maintain strong alliances with complimentary organizations, including: the Institute for Play, Alliance for the Transformation of Childhood, The Center for Nonviolent Communication, ChildrenBelieve, Mothering Magazine, and others.