Barack and Michelle Obama reveal their future plans - and they need your help

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have left the White House, but they have a plan mapped out for their new lives as private citizens.

In a video released on 20 January, just as Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, the Obamas announced they will be launching the Obama Foundation. The presidential centre will be based on the South Side of Chicago, the area where Michelle grew up, but it will carry out projects all over the world.

According to the foundation's website obama.org, the goal is to create a "working startup for citizenship — an ongoing project for us to shape, together, what it means to be a good citizen in the 21st century".

The outgoing president explained: "More than a library or museum, it will be a living, working centre for citizenship."

The Obamas explained that in the next few months, they will be looking to crowd-source ideas for deserving projects. They have invited the public to submit ideas for projects to be executed in future. "This will be your presidential centre as much as it will be ours," Michelle promised.

Repeating a message that he has expressed in the past, he repeated that no one person alone can fix all problems, Barack added: "True democracy is bigger than any one of us. It's bigger than any one person, any one president, any one government. It's a job for all of us."

The foundation will be run by a friend of the Obamas, Marty Nesbitt and former White House political director David Simas and will also work to raise funds for Obama's presidential library.

Before getting to work on the new projects, the Obamas look forward to relaxing for a while. "We're going to take a little break. We're finally going to get some sleep and take some time to be with our family," Michelle said. The Obama family is scheduled to fly off to Palm Springs, California, for their first night away from presidential responsibilities in eight years.