Community Voices is supporting a group of older ladies in St Helen’s who wanted to learn how to get online. A small amount of funding enabled them to organise weekly classes at which they have gone from the basics of how to use a mouse, to how to shop online. They also had some computers donated by their sheltered housing scheme that they are able to practise on.
We got many applications from similar sheltered housing schemes wanting to run ’get online’ type projects for older people. In fact a third of all our applications were from such groups; but the application from this group stood out a mile. It was written by one of the members of the group, Margaret. She said: “I hear about families keeping in contact with each other abroad on Skype, hear about people taking advantage of cheap holidays and cheap shopping, hear about dating websites that older people use to meet new partners. I want to stop listening and get learning!” We loved the community drive and passion to get online behind this application.
I was lucky enough to visit the group before Christmas and observe one of the lessons in action. The impact has been amazing with many of the ladies feeling less isolated due to being able to keep in touch with family and friends more easily, and being more able to access public services and do things like online shopping to make their lives easier.
Rose told me what difference getting online had made to her.
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