Help older people to improve their digital literacy skills and to stay connected and informed
Age Action is excited to work with ChangeX through the Community Call Fund to mobilise Digital Champions - people who will connect with older people on a one-to-one basis to support them to improve their digital literacy skills using the Getting Started KIT materials. Older people are medically vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic and with the HSE guidelines on social distancing and ‘cocooning’, more people are relying on digital media as a way to keep in touch with family and friends. By becoming a Digital Champion you are helping older people to improve their digital literacy skills to stay connected and informed which is more important than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Paddy Connolly, CEO Age Action Ireland
The Idea
Can you be a Digital Champion and join the Getting Started KIT community to help some of the 70% of people over the age of 65 who are not online, get online?
The digital divide has been laid bare during Covid-19 for all age groups; many children and adults, particularly older adults cannot participate in digital learning or the digital economy either for ...
“The things I’ve learned through this programme now matter far more than I’d ever imagined they would. Although at the moment I’m cocooning (in a remote area) and I don’t have broadband, I can still do everything on the phone that I would do on the laptop at home. I can use the phone for: Banking, checking my accounts, paying by visa, money transfers. Reading and sending emails. Google’s my best friend… for recipes, helping to solve problems and getting information. I use Facebook and Messenger to keep in touch with what’s going on. I use the phone a lot especially for WhatsApp so it costs me hardly anything to talk to my sister in America. My son’s set me up with an app so I can monitor my daily exercises. I try to do 6,000 steps a day around the garden. I use it also for taking photos and sending them to people. If I couldn’t do those things, I would be so lonely. I have one visit a day from my son who talks to me through the window and apart from that, no contact. It’s a great substitute if you can’t be with people physically, and it’s a great reassurance for my family to know that I can be in touch with them and them with me and keep checking in on me.”
- Jacqueline Cullinane, Getting Started Programme Learner Cork, Age 86
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