Many senior citizens left work either at the beginning of the digital age or shortly thereafter. Initially they had no need for technology and the computing world passed them by in their happy retirement time. This "digital isolation" is no longer possible as information technology is forcing its way into their lives whether they want it or not. Many struggle with simple things like autotellers and point of sale banking. Worse, the grandkids ask why Nana doesn't email them. The worst scene is when the kids arrive having bought a new computer and bring the old one for Nana and Grandad! It sits there in the house mocking them. Most are on fixed incomes and cannot afford the expensive educational courses available and, in some cases, could not travel to them anyway. So what do they do? Usually, nothing, having no idea how to get affordable help or training.

How to redress this situation in a large retirement area? Easy. Find 2 or 3 "go getters" with some reasonable computing skills and a desire to learn and help others. Start a Seniors Computing Club. Find an incorporated body to sponsor the project (Ours is the local Neighbourhood Watch). Then call a meeting to gauge interest. Start them off by introducing them to each other. Find out who can do something on their computer. If they can do something (anything!email, type a letter) they can show someone else! Pair them up to visit and share their knowledge together while you get cracking looking for funding and premises. If premises are a problem have a look at your local schools. We and another similar club we started on the other side of town make use of school computer labs after school hours. Good neighbourhood watch stuff this!

In our case we had a member let us use a studio on top of his garage and we started lessons on 2 old Pentium 133s and an ancient Mac. 4 months later we obtained some funding from the Qld government Gambling Fund and bought 6 Celeron 733s. That was 5 years ago. We now train up to 78 people a week in 2 hour sessions on subjects ranging from basic skills to digital photography, email, blogging, internet safety, scanning and so on. We teach what they want to know not what business wants. The computer are now Celeron 2.4s, networked on broadband with scanners and printers.

We ask for a $2 donation at the monthly meeting and a $6 donation for each 2 hour session. There are no joining fees. we average 140+ at our monthly meeting (where we unveil the coming months classes and hold a "raffle" to be fair in filling spaces).

Today we have had over 2400 people seek advice and training from the club. Our "Active " membership is about 300 +- at any given time and people make the monthly meeting a day out. The club is providing far more than just computing skills to our community. People have made friends, "do lunch" and share knowledge.

Visit the website and see the great digital photo contest running and see the classes we run. Think about sponsoring something like that in your community. A gift to seniors, increased trading for local computer merchants/repairers, increased community safety, a better life all round.