Volume 6, Issue 1  January-June, 2022

In this Issue:

A Busy Start to 2022
Seniors Festival 2022
Young Mentors at Nowra
More Volunteers Wanted
Home Visits & Zoom Help

Download as PDF LC Newsletter Vol 6 Iss 1

Busy Start to 2022

With Covid restrictions relaxed, we resumed Illawarra Dropins early this year with 3 sessions at Warilla Neighbourhood Centre in January. Weekly sessions at Woonona-Bulli RSL, Fairy Meadow and Unanderra Community Centres resumed in February and monthly at Albion Park and Albion Park Rail Community Centres.

In the Shoalhaven we are holding regular sessions at Lake Conjola

In Batemans Bay we hold weekly sessions at the NBN Community Hub, see below:

In the Euroodalla we run sessions for residents at Goodwin Village the Manor and Opal.

Seniors Festival NSW

The NSW Seniors Festival took place from March 25 to April 3, 2022. and this year’s theme was “Reconnect”.  Living Connected held events throughout our network on the theme “Apps for Reconnecting”.  Here we are at Albion Park Youth and Community Centre in March.

Young mentors at Nowra

We have started an exciting new venture with junior boys’ soccer players, of the Shoalhaven U18 and their families.  We are the team’s major sponsor, and the boys are great ambassadors for Living Connected.  We have given then some “young digital mentors training”, and they are practicing on seniors in their families and friends.

Here is coach Alan handing out their Kit with our logo. Then the team and sponsors lined up next to their banners.

Volunteers Wanted

As attendance at our Dropin sessions has grown, we are looking to recruit new volunteers for the rewarding work of digital mentoring.  If you are interested, please contact us (phone and email details below)

Home Visits and Zoom Help

We are still offering free 1-on-1 help via Zoom and at home (first visit free).  Contact us to make a booking.

Volume 5, Issue 5  November-December, 2021

In this Issue:

End of Year Break
Scam Awareness Week
Seniors Festival 2022
Our Great Team
Happy festive Season to all

Download as PDF LC Newsletter Vol 5 Iss 5

End of Year Break

Our free weekly Dropin Sessions in the Illawarra. close mid-December to the end of January 2022. Meanwhile there will be sessions at Warilla Neighbourhood Centre on January 17, 24 and 31 at 2-3:30pm and Albion Park Rail, Ash Ave Jan 19, 10-11:30am

Home will stop until Jan 17, 2022. Regular weekly Zoom groups have stopped but 1-on-1 Zoom help can be booked by contacting us. 

Scam Awareness Week – The Great Debate
Living Connected took part in Scam Awareness Week 2021 ( 8-12 Nov).
We organised a Debate on the topic “Online Banking is safer and better than traditional Banking”.  You can watch this on our Youtube Channel.

Opening up everywhere in 2022
In the Illawarra, our weekly sessions at Woonona-Bulli RSL, Fairy Meadow and Unanderra will resume first week of February 2022. Monthly Sessions at Albion Park Community Centre in Russell St will be held every 4th Wednesday from February 23 at 10am and on the 3^rd Wednesday at Albion Park Rail Across our whole network, home visits and individual Zoom Help can be booked from January 17, 2022, with Zoom sessions free of charge.
Your first home visit is free, but a cost will be incurred thereafter. Discounts are available for pensioners and those with home care packages, who can pay through a home care package by arrangement with the provider.
In the Shoalhaven, we will work with existing partners IRT and start an exciting new venture with young mentors and their families at the soccer club – more soon.
In the Eurobodalla and Southern Highlands, we will be having discussions with our partners on when and where we can resume free Dropin sessions in 2022.  Please contact us if you are interested.

Seniors Festival 2022
The NSW Seniors Festival will take place from March 25 to April 3, 2022. and this year’s theme is “reconnect”.  Living Connected will hold festival events throughout our network on a related theme “Apps for Reconnecting”

Our Great Team
For 2 years, the Living Connected team faced the unexpected challenges of the pandemic. The team helped people learn to use their digital devices to deal with the isolation that came with lockdowns, and the restrictions imposed as we open up. We have received wonderful feedback from many helped. Some of our team got together and shared a few pizzas after our AGM to celebrate our successes and contribution to the community.

Volume 5, Issue 4  September-October, 2021

In this Issue:

• Resuming Face to Face
• Get Online Week – YouTube
• Get Online Week in Person
• Farewell to Callum

Download as PDF LC Newsletter 5-4

Resuming face to face

Coming out of Lockdown, we are resuming these free Dropin Sessions:

• Woonona Bulli RSL, Princes Highway Woonona on Thursdays 3pm-4:30
• Fairy Meadow Community Centre, Guest Park on Fridays 10-11:30am This replaces the session we used to run at iAccelerate on Tuesdays This replaces the Tuesday morning sessions at the Innovation Cmpus
• From November 15, Unanderra Community Centre, Corner Princes Highway and Factory Rd, on Mondays 1:30-3pm.
• More soon

As always, anyone wanting help with phones, tablets and laptops should bring their devices with them. Only people who have evidence of full Covid vaccination can attend. If you want help getting your certificate, we will provide it. All our helpers are vaccinated. Please don’t come if you are not well and respect the normal COVID rules.

As we resume face to face, we will stop the Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon Zoom Sessions and the last one on Monday afternoon will be November 8.  We will continue to hold the weekly Zoom help session on Thursdays 10-11am and start one on Tuesday 3-4pm. The Zoom Meeting ID is 921 0743 1729   Passcode 382299

Get Online Week on YouTube

Get Online Week in Person

Volume 5, Issue 3  July-August, 2021

In this Issue:
Back in Lockdown
Digital Mentoring Services
Zoom Hosting Service
Our YouTube Channel

Download as PDF LC Newsletter Vol 5 Iss 3

Back in Lockdown

Though it irks us that the Illawarra is considered part of “Greater Sydney”, we remain in lockdown. We are using this time to update our online presence and back of house systems. UOW team members are once again struggling with online learning, and we offer them our support. We have also taken on some new team members looking for something to do online: Mija and Shibin in Wollongong, Lyn in Batemans Bay, and Alden in India who heard about us from one of our interns.

Digital Mentoring Services

For a number of weeks to come we may not be able to offer our face-to-face services, but we will resume our Drop-in help sessions and home visits as soon as allowed. This may start with those in regional areas. Meanwhile, our regular online group sessions on Zoom are becoming popular. Clients can also contact us to book an individual Zoom session with one of our team. Please drop in at any time (details in the email or see https://livingconnected.org.au/living-connected-online/).

Zoom Hosting Service We are still offering a service to help organisations and groups run Zoom meetings.  We can host for you or give you instructions and practice to host yourself. We can also record a session and put it up on our YouTube channel so you can send the link to others, as we did for an online presentation for the National Council of Jewish Women NSW. Click the link to view. https://youtu.be/pmTbbwANOVM

Our YouTube Channel

In “normal’ times our team members (also called digital mentors) get a great deal of joy and satisfaction from helping elders in person.  With only Zoom services while in lockdown we have fewer clients. So, to keep spirits up, team members are creating short video clips introducing themselves for our YouTube Channel (banner and link below).

Use this link and subscribe to our channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkjbruEQ13J4mGwUMVZSJPg

Remember, YouTube belongs to Google so you can sign in to YouTube with your Google (gmail) account.

       Volume 5, Issue 2  Apr-June, 2021

In this Issue:

IRT Program Completed
Team Changes
Getting back to Normal
We Do Magic Award

Download as PDF LC Newsletter Vol 5 Iss 2

IRT Program Completed

Living Connected has just finished running 3 x 2hour digital training sessions in 20 IRT facilities in the Illawarra, Kiama, Shoalhaven and Southern Sydney. We now look forward to concentrating on our regular program. Thankfully, we completed the last 2 sessions with IRT residents on June 25, the Friday before we went into lockdown. We met some wonderful seniors residing in IRT facilities, including folk at Towradgi Village, one of the smallest, pictured below.  Also below, you see that we were helped by some of our Young Mentors in the April school holidays at IRT Diment Tower: a win-win experience for both learners and mentors.  A big thankyou to our team who helped run almost 60 extra sessions in the last 3 months.

Team Changes

Mid-year means that some of our student helpers graduate and leave us. Here we say farewell to Ridwone , a regular helper at our Unanderra Dropin, off to do a PhD in Queensland. We now take on new interns Harley and Rose and several new UOWx volunteers. Thanks to Naz for the selfie effort.

Getting back to normal

We look forward to spending more time on our regular program of Dropin sessions and home visits. These continue to be popular, helping people with their individual challenges using phones, tablets, laptops and the internet.  We hold three weekly Dropins in the Illawarra and monthly sessions further afield at Albion Park Rail, Nowra, Culburra and Bundanoon. We will soon be starting up Dropins sessions at Lake Conjola and further south in the Eurobodalla. All sessions are free of charge.

We Do Magic Awards

Living Connected was successful at the recent awards presented by the Community Industry Group, an amazing organistion that brings together all the wonderful people who run community programs in the Illawarra.  We were privileged to win the “Terrific Team Effort” category for our Young Mentors program and were a finalist in the “Reinvention and Rejuvenation” and “Friends in Need” categories.  Helen and Sue are here with Omar from iAccelerate and Nicky from CIG.