Santa Cruz Seniors Take On Technology

Fear of technology? Not today’s seniors.

A recent Pew Internet Research Report showed some interesting statistics: In the past 10 years, computer use among Americans 65 and older has doubled, and older Americans have become the fastest growing demographic for social media use.

A collaboration between the Santa Cruz Volunteer Center’s Youth Serve program and the Louden Nelson Senior Center will bring even more seniors across the so-called Digital Divide. A series of workshops lead by teen volunteers will teach seniors the skills they need to use social media, cell phone features and photo uploading from cameras to computers—everything necessary to connect with family, friends and the world by taking advantage of the benefits of technology.

“As the generation coined ‘Digital Natives,’” said Youth Serve Program Coordinator Woubzena Jifar, “young people are the perfect candidates for helping seniors learn how to connect with online technology.”

The class, which takes place Saturday, May 21, 2011 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Louden Nelson Senior Computer Center (301 Center Street in Santa Cruz) will be the second workshop in what will be a monthly offering. The first class took place on March 19.

“We had a successful one,” Jifar said, “as more than a dozen seniors dropped in at different times of the day and seven youth volunteers and two parents helped them with their phones, phone cameras, uploading pictures and Facebook pages, Twitter and LinkedIn.”

And she’s expecting an even larger turnout for the May 21 Senior Tech Day.

“We have really increased our marketing efforts from the last time we did the workshop,” she said. “Therefore, I expect 30 to 40 seniors to attend our workshop this time around.”

How did this collaboration come about?

“I had been getting calls from teachers asking me to get their students connected to an opportunity where they would be working with seniors,” Jifar said.

So in November 2010, she approached the Senior Center looking for volunteer opportunities for Youth Serve teens. She met Senior Program Director Kim Fryer who told her that seniors were interested in having someone show them how to use their electronics.

“Both she and I thought this was a great opportunity for Youth Serve and the Senior Center to collaborate,” Jifar said.

Fryer said the Senior Computer Center gets a steady flow of users.

“We average about 50 regular users in the open lab over the course of a month,” she said. “And our current membership is around 175 to 250 people. Our classes for spring have slots for 120 people and we have 87 enrolled currently.”

She explained that people find many uses for the computer center.

“Most of our clientele want to get on the Internet and also get e-mail,” she said. “They are most excited about the ability to connect with long distance family and friends. We recently did a workshop on Skype, which got our members really excited. Finding information, doing research and accessing government sites are their main focus. Some are writers and are working on their novels and poetry.”

In planning Senior Tech Day, Jifar said she worked on marketing with the Senior Center, but the “program came from the youth organically. They didn’t want to plan out too much since we didn’t know what seniors would bring.”

The teens who teach the classes are 14 to 18 years old. Jifar said they have different levels of expertise.

“I hold a mini training before the workshop where we decide together who feels comfortable with what position,” she explained. “Believe it or not, I have youth volunteers who are not on Facebook, in which case we put them on phones and cameras. Since we have ten or more volunteers we assign everyone tasks they can do.”

The teens enjoy volunteering and working with the seniors, while at the same time building their own marketable skills.

“Whenever I ask the youth to fill out an application and they write down their hobbies,” Jifar said, “they never put down they can text or know how to operate a camera and have a Facebook page. So when they find themselves in these situations of something they take for granted or even think of as useless—helping other people, it becomes very exciting.”

And the seniors are definitely benefiting from the teens’ help. Jifar said this workshop is for the beginner rather than intermediate or advanced user.

“I think this particular workshop is geared towards seniors who are unsure about what certain buttons on their phone does,” she said. “Or they’re unable to check their messages, feel they can’t upload their photos from their cameras to their computer, etc.”

For the workshop, participants should bring their own cell phones, cameras and necessary cables for connecting to the computer.

Jifar said there will be 10 to 15 teen volunteers at the May 21 workshop, and they will be working on an individual basis with the seniors, whether it’s on the cell phone, camera or computer.

With the help of the teens from Youth Serve, seniors, too, can become “Digital Natives.”

For more information, please contact Woubzena Jifar at 831-427-5066 or at ys@scvolunteercenter.org or visit www.scvolunteercenter.org