Mission Statement:
By offering a safe environment, creating multi-generational talent pools, integrating technology and advancing social values, Illinois libraries are bridging the traditional with the innovative to impact the next generation.

Purpose:
For the next generation, technology will be a necessary tool for communication of ideas as well as a skill vital for tomorrow's jobs. Today's 13 year olds will work in jobs that don't exist today. Providing them with a 'technology toolkit' to draw upon is of highest priority to ensure future success. Our communities, through their local public libraries, are in a unique position to provide for this need.

Using peer mentors and public libraries, Project Next Generation will capitalize on research which documents that peer associations augment social and mental development. Friendships will develop through peer mentoring and become keys to learning and social growth. With mentoring as the glue, technology as the process, and libraries as the resource, Project Next Generation will combine opportunities for skill and personal development.