Newspaper 4-1

Volume 4 Issue 1 February-March 2020

In this Issue:
Why 2020?
Isolation and IT
Living Connected Online
Recovery Help
Cross-Gen Project

Download as a PDF LC Newsletter Vol 4 Iss 1

Living Connected is all about people helping each other. We are doing all we can for the well-being of our clients, partners and members of our team.

Why 2020.

On New Year’s Eve, the southern half of the Living Connected Network was fighting bush fires unlike any they ever experienced. With communications down everywhere it took weeks to make contact and check that our partners and clients were OK. Recovery has been slow and there is still more to do but no-one expected the COVID19 pandemic to follow.

Recovery Help

On a bright note, Living Connected is working with the men’s group at the Sussex Inlet CTC who are repurposing our old laptops. These are being distributed with a few introductory lessons to people who lost computers in the fires, need them to work or study at home, or just to stay connected/

Isolation and IT

!0 years ago, the founders of Living Connected began research into the why and how older people were taking up modern digital technologies. A major finding was that, as people remained living in their homes longer, they became more isolated with more detrimental consequences for their health and well-being than smoking. Living Connected was founded to help isolated seniors use IT to overcome the effects of isolation and loneliness. Now we are all facing isolation and IT is helping to keep us connected. In this screen shot, we help a local Rotary Club to meet on Zoom which is now becoming popular for groups to get together from companies to families.

Living Connected Online

With all face-to-face services now suspended, we are looking to provide help which is now more important than ever. Our phone has WhatsApp that can be used to contact us through the same number.  We can talk you through the setup of options.  We have a roster of team members on Skype, mostly the same people who helped out at group sessions at the time. We also have experts who can remotely access your device to help fix more serious problems.  For these and other options to connect see https://livingconnected.org.au/living-connected-online/

Cross Gen Project
Last year we were planning to take part in the Young Mentors program being developed by the Federal Government’s Commissioner for eSafety. This program is on hold until things are a bit more settled but will go ahead as soon as we can. It  is a partnership between Living Connected, local High Schools, the Australian eSafety Commissioner and two PhD students, Alex and Jade, who have been working with the Nan Tien Temple to promote understanding concerning the use of digital technologies by young people and its role in modern society. From our experience, we see a mutually beneficial relationship where student mentors learn as much from the seniors as the seniors do from them.  We know that many seniors are excluded from the online world through poor digital skills while many students, captive to social media, are disconnected from community.