Older people challenging isolation and exclusion
Starting Wednesday 4 October, the first drop-in of the month will double up as a party event — same digital drop-in with bonus festivity and refreshments.
Please come with your usual drop-in hopes, aspirations and intentions.
Party MC this month (possibly every month) is DJ Mumbles. Music from the internet (that’s the digital angle).
Florence invites everybody to her new podcast show — Florence & Friends — starting with a trailer for 50+ Digital at Mildmay Community Centre.
NB: this activity has finished.
A sunshiny event with people involved in the Mildmay Food Hub and Community Cook-up projects.
Is that you? Come and talk to us about what you do and how the food projects help local residents.
Everyone else is welcome, especially if you volunteer at any other community food project.
NB: these workshops have finished.
Our plans for the launch of Mildmay Community Radio – from the garden deck of the centre – have been thwarted several times by unusually adverse weather. We can’t do al fresco radio if it’s cold or wet outside.
So we will launch it twice and you are invited to both …
This will be a normal Monday afternoon learning event in the main hall. We will demonstrate the equipment we use for internet radio and podcasts — and hopefully convince you that this is something you could do yourself at home. Everybody can have a go.
It will be live internet radio, not a short podcast episode. The acoustics on the main hall are not good, so professional sound quality will not be on the menu – but we will at least have got something started.
We have also set up all our training phones to pick up the live stream. So you will have an easy way to listen (though not yet to phone in).
We can do this on the garden deck (outside the café area) – provided the weather is on our side. The outdoor acoustics are usually excellent, and our equipment can handle most intrusive noises.
The provisional topic is Mildmay Community Centre itself – and what older people can achieve there.
Everyone who turns up is a part of fluid studio audience. But not all at once. We have 4 microphones, so up to 4 people can be part of the conversation – while the others wait their turn.
The conversation picked up by the microphones is streamed to an online radio server. Anyone who knows the link can listen.
By the way – here is the link: live.radiotogether.uk (when there is no live talk stream, the server just sends a loop of recorded birdsong).
You don’t need any digital skills to participate. The important skills are the skills you have been learning for decades – talking and listening, sharing your life experiences as an older person who remembers life before the internet.
Bring them to the Monday event.
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.
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
NB (15 March): winter has officially finished, so has the funding for this winter project.
This is a perfect fit to our Wednesday afternoon Digital Drop-in, 1 to 4 pm.
The food is served in the café area, next to the kitchen (not in the Main Hall).
Our suggestion – get there early at 12:30 – replenish your vitamins and build up your stamina for the drop-in starting at 1 pm.
The free food is organised by Mildmay Community Centre, not by Fifty-Plus Digital.
Hardeep talks to Winston the Geezer about his life with dance and music. Winston is the Monday afternoon dance instructor at Mildmay Community Centre (to join the group, just be there at 1 pm).
Recorded 7 November 2022 in the Live Room at Mildmay Community Centre, London N16.
Links
The best place to listen is radiotogether.uk/hardeep — but as you are here now, try the playlist below …
No technical skills required — just the ability to tell a story about your life or ask someone else to tell you a story.
We take care of the tech, but you can learn that as well if you really want to. There are many ways to make your own podcast show, even if all you have is a smartphone.
If you are interested, come over to the regular podcast learning session …
Sometimes we skip a Friday afternoon session, so it’s best to contact us before coming (send an email to rick@radiotogether.uk )
Radio Together is not organised by MRS – Independent Living.