Carla
Lockhart, the Council Mayor and Margarita O Donnell, from Loughshore Access
Project, presented seven members of Maghery Diamond Club with certificates for
participating in a free IPAD for beginners course and twelve members from
Maghery youth club for their invaluable contribution throughout the six weeks.
Relationships were really strengthened throughout this intergenerational
project and great fun and laughter was had by all.
This course was facilitated
through BT Connected Communities as part of the Get IT Together programme, in
partnership with the UK charity, Citizens Online. They are investing
resources to help increase public access to the internet through providing fun
informal computer sessions to help build confidence and skills for new users
and job seekers. In Northern Ireland we have a fantastic fibre broadband
infrastructure and we want to ensure that as many people as possible benefit
from that.
Maghery Community Hall had
won a BT Community Connections award, providing free broadband to the Centre
for a year. Maghery Diamond Club has benefited from this service and
taken part in a FREE introductory IPAD course. This course was organised in conjunction with Loughshore
Access Project, which is a health and well-being initiative, run by South Lough
Neagh Regeneration Association.
Members
of the local youth group helped older members of the Diamond Club discover some
of the benefits of being online using their ipads and downloading apps.
The Club would like to thank
Anita Kelly,
Project Coordinator for Citizens Online in N Ireland, for creating a relaxed
learning environment throughout the course, to the young people who came along
every week to help, to the SHSCT for funding the ipads, and the
Community Hall for the use of their training facilities and internet, all of
which has made this course possible.
Anne
Fox, participant said:
“We’ve
learned so much more about the opportunities existing for us by being connected
to the internet and the various apps we can download to help us keep in contact
with each other, increasing our health and social well being and reducing
social and rural isolation.”
Members
were able to carry out various health checks through downloading apps eg to
check their blood pressure and stress levels.
They
were able to search for information about their favourite hobbies eg sport and
tv programmes, reserve and download e-books, check the weather forecast and
latest news headlines, communicate with friends and family through sending
e-mails and face time, save money on bills using comparison websites and get
easy access to local services eg Council, Translink, Money Advice
Service. They also learned how to use google maps and download crosswords
and word searches. Both the young and young at heart had great fun taking
and editing photos, playing 4 in a row, solitaire, watching funny youtube
videos and new connections were made, both with each other and online.
Francis
Fee, participant said: “This course was very enjoyable and I learned so much
more than I thought I ever could – I’d recommend everyone to get online, as
there’s something to suit everyone’s interests. The young people were
very helpful and showed us how to set up emails and download different apps.”
The Group are also
participating in Citizens Online research study, to help understand more about
the way people use the internet. They will be contacted over a two year
period to ask them about their internet usage, at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and
2 years after they’ve complete the training. The survey takes
approximately 10 minutes to complete. The results will be used to measure the
success of the training and provide a better understanding of the way people
use the internet and the barriers preventing it’s use.
Citizens
Online have trained local volunteers to help take people through the basics and
get them online and /or increase employment opportunities through online job
searches, applications and uploading CV’s to recruitment agencies etc.
Free six week informal introductory courses are being run in a number of
Community Venues across the West at various times, tailored to suit the needs
of local participants and increase their computer confidence.
BT
Connected Communities are currently based in the Gasyard, Caw, Maydown and
Draperstown in Co Derry~Londonderry; Pomeroy and Augher in Co Tyrone; and
Enniskillen, Ederney and Irvinestown in Co Fermanagh.
If
you know how to use a computer, ipad or tablet and would like to help others realise
the benefits of being online, please contact Anita to find out how and where
you can volunteer and the dates/venues of the next training sessions.
This time can contribute towards the Millennium Volunteers Award for people
under 30 years old and will also be a good edition to your CV. For
others, it’s a great way of using your skills to help others and meet new
people, making a real difference to their lives.
If
you or your group would like to learn more about how the project could benefit
you, want to help others get online or find out about our Research study,
please feel free to contact your local Connected Community Centre or Anita
Kelly, Project Co ordinator, T: 078 1857 3617 or email: anita.kelly@citizensonline.org.uk
If
you are already online, please follow us on twitter:@GetITTogetherNI or
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CitizensOnlineNI?ref=hl
or visit our websites
www.citizensonline.org.uk www.btconnectedcommunities.com
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