“It was a new world to me. It opened up a whole lot of things,” says Gail.
Gail is talking about the Digital Literacy Foundation’s Click & Connect iPad loan program, run in partnership with Penrith City Council. Initially funded by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, the program continues this year with the generous funding of the Okta for Good Fund and Tides Foundation.
We recently caught up with Gail at the Village Café in Kingswood, one of three regular monthly pop-up events in the Penrith area, where Click & Connect participants can receive help from our trained volunteer digital mentor ‘Tech Mates’, who are available to answer questions about technology.
Not so long ago, Gail couldn’t even turn a computer on. The knowledge that “everything was becoming so computerised” motivated her to start a course in computer basics. There, she found out about our Click & Connect program.
As an aged pensioner who couldn’t have contemplated buying an iPad herself, Gail lost no time in signing up! She’s extremely thankful for the iPad, and to our wonderful volunteer Tech Mates, who have helped her to gain the confidence to send emails and use search engines to look up information.
“They don’t roll their eyes. They are just so patient,” she says about our digital mentors. “It doesn’t matter how many times you ask them something… Then, when you eventually get it, it’s like ‘Eureka!’ It feels great. Now, I can look up the latest news to see what’s happening. I can look up recipes. There’s a Belgian tea cake that is a real hit! Everyone wants the recipe, so I just direct them onto the website!”
Our Click & Connect program is open to people aged 65+ or 50+ if you are First Nations. iPads are free of charge to those who qualify, and come complete with broadband plans and digital mentoring.
Find out details of the next Village Café event here.