Older people challenging isolation and exclusion
(Recorded 4 June 2020 in Shoreditch)
(Recorded 17 June 2020 in St Mary’s Secret Garden, Hackney)
(Recorded 4 June 2020 in Shoreditch)
Gifty Naa Dk, Sue Jarvis and friends – in St Mary’s Secret Garden – 9 September 2020.
A course for adventurous senior citizens at Mildmay Community Centre – Monday afternoons in March 2023
NB: This course has finished.
This is a course about being able to do something useful or essential – apps used by work teams, individual entrepreneurs and creators. You will learn the basics of Google WorkSpace – a package of apps widely used by business and non-profit organisations.
The apps are designed for teams as well as single users – and (like most workplace software now) they all run in the cloud – where you can access them from any location – as well as the computer you are using at home or in an office.
You probably access your personal email in a cloud server. Workplace software extends that kind of access to everything you do at work – vastly increasing productivity – and (a key concept) simplifying immediate collaboration with other people you work with.
This is not new – but if your work experience is not recent, you might not realise how much has changed in the last 10 years. Your tutor has been using this system since 2007, for personal use, community projects, and as a part-time employee of charity MRS – Independent Living (which uses WorkSpace for internal and external processes).
Below is a list of apps that we will look at during the course. If you have email at seniors.org.uk or bold.org.uk, you already have all the apps. If you use Gmail.com, you have limited personal versions of most of them.
Obviously, you won’t become proficient in all of those apps during a short course. But you will know what they are, and how to get started.
Organised by MRS – Independent Living (MRS-IL) – Digital Confidence project – 50pd.uk
A double workshop at Mildmay Community Centre – Monday afternoons in February 2023
NB: this workshop has finished.
We have recently acquired more laptop computers, which will help to double the number of people who can learn effectively at the Wednesday afternoon drop-in.
This workshop will help you understand how to use the laptops (new and previous) …
We will also investigate the best possible use of the space in the main hall — as we did during the last smartphone course (we discovered that we should project onto the large drop-down screen – and that community centre should upgrade the main hall wifi, which they have done).
Organised by MRS – Independent Living (MRS-IL) – Digital Confidence project – 50pd.uk
15 March 2023: we have distributed all the Device Bank smartphones.
You can read about the national scheme at the main website – goodthingsfoundation.org/national-device-bank
We have already distributed our first batch of refurbished smartphones — gifted to people with low incomes (eg- Universal Credit, Pension Credit, etc).
Not sure if you are eligible? Ask us!
They are all the same model — Galaxy XCover 4s — robust business phones in excellent condition — ideal for people whose primary IT needs are not recreational. With each phone, we provide a SIM card with free mobile data for at least six months.
We have set them up to be suitable for older people who might be relative digital beginners, prioritising accessibility, usability, privacy and security. Initially they resemble the devices you use on our smartphone training courses. Of course, you can do whatever you like with them afterwards, and you may expect continued support at our weekly digital drop-in.
Q1: When can I get one, and how?
A1: Find us at the weekly Digital Drop-in. For further details — keep in touch with us.
Q2: Does where I live affect my eligibiliity?
A2: For the smartphone scheme, you should be a resident of any London borough.
Q3: I’m using an old Nokia phone. Will I be able to upgrade my brain to smartphone standard?
A3: You are probably 100% eligible. Most recipients so far had an old Nokia before, and have found that smartphones are actually quite easy to use — and quick access to the internet has made their lives more cheerful.
NB: this event has finished.
Mildmay Community Centre will be open as usual Wednesday afternoon 25 January – but not for the Digital Drop-in.
Instead there will be an all-day Cost of Living event in the main hall – to which you are invited, of course. For more information, please visit page Cost of Living Event at The Mildmay.
50+ Digital is not involved in event arrangements, so there won’t be a normal digital drop-in — but the 50+ Data Bank will be open in the café area from 1:30 to 3 pm.
Sheena Adae-Amoakoh – owner of local hair stylist HausOfShee – brought friends Akela and Whitney to help at the Digital Drop-in, 11 January 2023. Photos by Elliot Jones – based at Point Two Studio.
These community-conscious young volunteers are local entrepreneurs. Your grandchildren might know them.
Tap or click on any photo in the gallery to see a larger version, or start a slide-show (if you are not quite sure how to do that, please ask a helper).
Elliot made a lot more photos. They are all very good, but we can’t publish them all here. However – if you are in one of Elliot’s photos, we will make sure you get a copy – in your email (you might need practice opening and saving photo attachments).
This session reminded us of the Pre-Pandemic Era, when we hosted more than 700 corporate volunteers via Benefacto from 2014 until COVID wrecked everything. Those volunteers were all really impressive – and made a huge, and memorable, impact.
We think employers (or HR departments) might be regaining confidence, though no enterprise has replaced Benefacto. But we are ready to help.
We are sending the photos to you by email (because downloading and managing photos is a useful digital skill for you to learn).
Daniel liked his so much, he got it printed – apparently for less than £1.
We have moved our Friday afternoon courses and workshops to Monday afternoons in the main hall at Mildmay Community Centre – the same large space we use for the Wednesday afternoon drop-in – not the small café area we occupied last year.
As we expected, the move was an immediate success. The currrent course – Exploring the web with smartphones – was guaranteed to be full because we were able to arrange an alternative activity for the course waiting list. As it happened, everyone on the waiting list joined the course.
Right now, we have 14 training smartphones – 12 for learners, 1 for the projector, 1 contingency. We think we can double the size of smartphone courses as we learn the best way to utilise the main hall, perhaps as soon as February.
4 Monday afternoons — January 2023 — at Mildmay Community Centre.
NB: this course has finished.
A step-by-step practical guide to finding incredibly useful things to do on the World Wide Web – and how to do them on a phone – safely and sensibly.
As always, you will start with your priorities and ambitions – and you will finish with important digital skills that perhaps you didn’t know existed.
Just as important – you will be more confident in your own ability to keep exploring and learning.
For your personal security – you will not use your own device, your own email address or your own phone number as part of the course.
Everyone will use our safety-first smartphones – set up for older people who don’t have a lot of internet experience – so we can all focus together on what is really important.
You are welcome to bring your own device if you want to – but we cannot offer 1:1 help with it as part of the course.
See also page: Learning – courses and workshops
Sam (multi-talented community outreach worker at Mildmay Community Centre) chats with Hardeep about her work and life. We also learn about gardening and community cooking at the centre.
Recorded 19 December 2022 in the Live Room at Mildmay Community Centre, London N16