Our Story

In 1990 Barbara Greenspan Shaiman joined her parents on a trip to Poland to learn firsthand about their experiences during the Holocaust. While visiting Auschwitz, where her mother and paternal grandmother were imprisoned, she was deeply moved to engage in a different journey – one that would require her to transition away from the executive recruitment firm she created. To address the violence she witnessed, Barbara sought to work with youth, as she felt they could substantially impact the future and create a better world.

In 1995, Barbara founded Champions of Caring to create cultures of caring in schools and communities. She provides professional development and curriculum to school districts to promote prosocial behaviors in youth. Tool kits help students create projects for social change. More than 10,000 students have participated from the greater Philadelphia area and South Africa.

In 2008, Barbara’s husband, Larry Shaiman, who was an estate planning lawyer, encouraged her to write a book about her experiences with Champions of Caring. That idea spawned Live Your Legacy Now! Ten Simple Steps to Find Your Passion and Change the World. Throughout its pages, Barbara shares strategies and activities with people of all ages to “live their legacies,” become more philanthropic and create projects for social change. She then founded Embrace Your Legacy to provide speeches, workshops and consulting services to corporate, financial services, healthcare and university groups.

Its mission is to motivate individuals to assess their core values, identify their passion and skill sets and then utilize these assets to take action and create projects for personal growth and social change. Our programs create cultures of caring in communities, organizations and/or business environments by developing socially conscious leaders and active citizens.