What about older people?
November 20, 2006 Posted by Clare in : Digital Challenge, Mentoring, Skills, Connecting Bristol , trackbackLast week’s visit from Stephen Dodson and Bert Provan (Chair of the Digital Challenge judges), seemed to highlight the need for us to look carefully at what we are offering older people. There are some fantastic and diverse projects going on already:
Mobile Bristol and CLASS
Members of CLASS, a self-directed group of older people, have recorded and edited their wartime childhood memories based in Southville, Bedminster and Redcliffe to create a landscape of digital stories using mobile technology. The software for the project was provided by Mobile Bristol, a project that enables people to augment their neighbourhood with sounds and stories.
Digital Storytelling at the Malcolm X Centre, St Pauls, Bristol.
During March 2006, staff from Watershed and the Museum began meeting with the Elders at the Malcom X Centre on a weekly basis to take part in Bristol Stories, using digital media to tell their stories about coming to Bristol, discussing the changes they have witnessed in Bristol over the years, and comparing the past with how they find life here now.
The Companion
A unique means of ensuring digitally excluded older people are socially included into a modern e-city world. The Companion provides their shopping, monitors their care, mobility and medications, communicates with family and friends, screens their visitors at the front-door by means of a ready-to-use tracking system, an essential and exciting appliance for all housebound, isolated citizens.
Bristol Wireless and Princess Royal Gardens in Redfield
Bristol Wireless installed a suite of allegedly ‘redundant’ computers in the common room of Princess Royal Gardens, sheltered housing for elderly people. Ronnie now wishes to reach out to the local community and invite them in, where the resident mentoring team of silver surfers will be on hand to assist.
But what have we missed? What is going on that we don’t know about and what should we connect? Something that caught my eye today (which isn’t in Bristol) is the world’s oldest blogger. Perhaps we could try and set a new record for the world’s oldest and youngest bloggers? Then encourage them to read and comment on each other’s lives.
Comments»
[…] At a previous Momentum Group meeting, Dick Penny mentioned the difference Bristol Wireless' work at Princess Royal Gardens had made to the lives of elderly residents (including saving legwork going to the bookie!). To reinforce further the difference that IT can make to the lives of older people, I'd like to introduce you to a member of my family. Like Donald Crowdis, the nonagenarian blogger referred to in Clare's piece, she doesn't live in Bristol, but I believe her tale still has relevance to us all. Gladys, my 75 year old mother, is someone to whom the phrase 'digital inclusion' would probably conjure up notions of something stuck in one's finger. Being largely housebound nowadays, she spends some time each day watching Christian cable TV and grew increasingly frustrated when her favourite programme kept referring people to its website and encouraging them to send emails. […]
I've had some really interesting conversations with older people in Knowle West, which I think will prove very valuable in informing our bid. The discussions I have had with the Knowle West lunch club and the walkers group clearly indicate ways forward in terms of what activities and resources would address the needs and interests that older people have themselves identified. I will be posting notes from these discussions to this blog once I have had approval from all those who took part.