Community Living Campaign

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Cultivating connections to help seniors and people with disabilities age and thrive at home.

Computers and Technology

Reducing Barriers for Those with Vision and Hearing Loss

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United Way of the Bay Area’s Francis Goldsmith Fund has helped CLC Vision and Hearing Initiative enrich its work – building community-based and online networks.  The goal is  support for isolated and at-risk seniors and people with disabilities, reducing  the consequences of hearing and vision loss, and helping to ensure that their psychosocial, physical and communication needs are met.

Through our partnerships with the 10 Adult Day Services Centers, assistive aids and equipment were purchased to :(1) provide individual assistance for low-income seniors and persons with disabilities; (2) maintain independent ability to get proper nutrition; (3) rebuild self-confidence through easier access to group socialization activities and (4) computer tutoring; and (5) enhance the safety and mobility to seniors with vision and/or hearing disabilities.

The grant from the Francis Goldsmith Fund enables the Community Living Campaign to showcase assistive technologies and provide training on strategies for living with hearing or vision loss to all of our programs for seniors and people with disabilities. As this work continues, attention is increasingly being given to the development of outcome targets that represent significant changes in the lives of those that benefit.

Over the past year, we have chocked up a solid list of  Initiative accomplishments which support our seniors and persons who experience vision and hearing loss:

Partnership at Adult Day Services (ADS):

 85 seniors served with grant-purchased equipment & devices:

Over 200 Personal Assistive aids and equipment worth over $6,000 through direct requests from the ten Adult Day Services centers’ staff (occupational therapists, physical therapists, nurses, social workers, activities coordinators, directors) for low-income and frail seniors to enhance social engagement, increase independence & reduce isolation and loneliness.

100 seniors and caregivers trained on accessible computers:

In eight ADS centers, 108 seniors have received training and support on accessible desktop computers provided through CLC’s partnership with the Dept. of Aging and Adult Services SF  Connected Program, and on iPads/Tablets with accessibility features and Apps purchased with Goldsmith funding.

12  volunteers and ADS staff members provide volunteer almost 700 hours of computer training in English, Russian, Chinese & Spanish.

Hearing Loss 101 Presentation & Screenings:

In  our Community Connector neighborhoods, we facilitated four Hearing Loss presentations and three hearing screenings.  This resulted in 24 individuals having their hearing tested by the Speech and Hearing Center. Participants also learn about hearing- and vision-related assistive device and strategies that helps seniors remain connected.

Participants in Midtown Terrace Commnity Connector network learn about free specialized phones and mobile phone accessories through the California Telephone Access Program (CTAP).

Emergency Preparedness Focus on Vision & Hearing Loss:

 CLC, in partnership with Community Youth Center-SF (CYC-SF) held our first Emergency Preparedness Academy with CLC staff and Community Connectors. We completed 4 courses in personal preparedness at home, traveling or at work, response and recovery during and after a catastrophic disaster and fire safety and basic first aid. These sessions were made possible through funding from the Department of Building Inspection’s Seismic Safety Outreach Program (SSOP) 

In the fall of 2018, a class of seniors from IT Bookman Senior Center in the OMI neighborhood attended the Emergency Preparedness Academy. Graduates received Emergency Preparedness bags (“Go Bags”) and certificates of completion.

If you would like more information about the program and how it could come to your neighborhood, please contact Sherri Sawyer, Program Director, at sherri@sfcommunityliving.org or by calling (415) 821-1003 ex. 111

Passport Program Brings Digital Literacy to More Seniors and People With Disabilities

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CLC and the SF Tech Council are rolling  out the Passport to the Digital World – a way to increase digital literacy among seniors and people with disabilities .  The project gathers links and tips from experienced technology trainers into guides for both learners and teachers. With these guides, participants can learn  some of the many ways they can connect and find valuable information  online. Read our earlier blog post for more detail on this initiative. 

Digital Literacy Passport Launches with Overflow Crowd

We officially launched this project with a Digital Passport Party during the library’s Connect with Tech Week. The Launch Party drew an overflow crowd (as we scrambled to get  more chairs, more chairs)!  Participants, some of whom came by bus from Visitacion Valley, enjoyed lunch and picked up their passports (available in English, Spanish and Chinese).  They got an overview of how the Passport can guide their learning, and even played Passport Bingo for tech-related prizes.    

Bring the Passport to the Digital World to Your Neighborhood

To learn more about the Digital Passport project, contact us at passport@sftechcouncil.org or go to  www.sftechcouncil.org/passport/. There are digital literacy partners throughout the San Francisco who are helping seniors and people with disabilities embark on their digital journeys.  And if you’d like to use the passport to teach folks in your community, please let us know!

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Come to Our May 10 Launch Party of ‘Passport to the Digital World’

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Photo of Passport to Digital World with Mousepad

The Passport to the Digital Word introduces 16 topics, from online safety to finding healthy aging resources, to online fun.

Calling San Francisco seniors and people with disabilities! There’s a whole digital world waiting for you. Learn how to get started and safely find your way to information, connections and fun online with our Passport to the Digital World.

We’ll be launching the Passport on May 10  as part of the Library’s Connect with Tech Week.  Join the party on May 10 from 12:00-1:30pm at the Main Library Learning Center on the 5th floor.  (Please let us know if you’re coming so we can have enough food and drink!)

 

Introducing Digital Learning Resources

Excelsior senior in computer lab With the Passport to the Digital World, seniors and people with disabilities can learn at their own pace and in a location that feels best for them – in a SF Connected computer lab, at their SF Library branch, with a friend. There are classes and one-on-one tutoring available throughout San Francisco.  

The Passport includes 14 “places” to visit in the online world: Getting Online (device and web browser basics), Navigating the Web Safely, Finding Tech Support, Writing and Sending Email, Listening to Music, Trying Social Media, Video Chatting, Playing Games Online, Shopping Online, Finding Healthy Recipes, Finding Food, Finding Transportation, Researching a Medical Condition, and Reading or Watching the News. There are also two bonus “places” to encourage learners to learn find other topics. Each topic includes two or three tasks for learners to master for a “stamp” on their passport.

For more on the topics, see the  Online Learning Resources webpage. The resources page is currently available in English, and will soon be available in Spanish and Chinese.

Celebrating Accomplishments

Cayuga seniors share photos on tabletAs participants complete tasks, trainers at participating organizations will “stamp” their passports for them. We will celebrate progress with  parties in the fall and spring.

We will invite participants  to join their Digital World neighbors to celebrate progress and learn from each other.  The parties will include recognition and certificates for those who complete their passports, as well as raffles for passport holders at all stages of learning.

San Francisco Organizations Join Forces to Increase Digital Literacy

The Passport is organized by the SF Tech Council, an organization of government, non-profit, and business leaders working to advance digital inclusion through policy, Council-led initiatives, and program support for older adults and people with disabilities. The Council’s Access and Learning Workgroup created the Passport to the Digital World to:

  • Increase beginning computer users’  interest in all of the exciting things available online
  • Share and publicize the many learning and technology access resources available to San Francisco seniors and people with disabilities
  • Help participants  find the resources and classes they need to get connected and safely navigate the internet
  • Help organizations and tutors to find and share our teaching resources 
  • Provide a set of specific skills for each 

As we launch the Passport, our partners include the Community Living Campaign, Community Technology Network, Felton Institute, and San Francisco Public Library. We welcome additional partners! If interested, please contact info@sftechcouncil.org to join the initiative, get a teaching packet, and more resource links.

 

‘Preserving Memories’ Events Engage Across Generations

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The Community Living Campaign and the San Francisco Tech Council have joined forces to help individuals and their loved ones preserve memories. It’s a “have scanners, will travel” phenomenon!  

After a launch event at 30th Street Senior Center with support from Fujitsu (which donated a range of Snapscan scanners),  the traveling event landed at Richmond Senior Center, Curry Senior Center, Excelsior Senior Center, and the Bayview YMCA.  

And the new CLC office at 1663 Mission Street became the site of a great scan-a-thon, with high school students scanned documents, photo boxes, and almost 1,000 snapshots for individuals and the organization.  

If you would like to bring a Preserving Memories event to your center, housing complex, or neighborhood association, please contact marie@sfcommunityliving.org.

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‘Preserving Memories’ Events Create a Chance to Share Stories

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Some activities are special, and the recent “Preserving Memories” Event at On Lok’s 30th Street was just such an event.  Nearly 20 seniors with memories to share were greeted by two teams of interested and engaged seniors from Lick-Wilmerding High School and given the opportunity to preserve their memories and share them with friends and loved ones.  The event was made possible by the generous donation of scanning equipment and day-long technical assistance from Fujitsu.  The San Francisco Tech Council, with support from the Community Living Campaign (CLC), helped organize and promote the event.   If you would like this Preserving Memories event to come to your senior or community center, contact Marie Jobling at (415) 821-1003 ex. 101 or email marie@sfcommunityliving.org. 

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CLC Computer Trainers Honored at Digital Leaders Event

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Community Living Campaign was delighted to receive the Digital Inclusion in the Community – Older Adults Award at the Digital Leaders event hosted by the Community Technology Network (CTN) at the Twitter Headquarters. We were honored to be included in the impressive group of seven other individuals and organizations. For a full list of awards and honorees, see CTN’s blog post.

Thanks to CLC’s dedicated trainers and staff, we were honored for being a consistent leader in efforts to increase digital inclusion for San Francisco seniors. We view digital inclusion as an essential part of empowering seniors and people with disabilities, providing them with the tools and resources they need to age and thrive in their communities. This ranges from working directly with participants to increase technology skills to launching and coordinating the cross-sector SF Tech Council to advocate for digital inclusion and increased resources.

Over the past three years, our CLC’s trainers—often seniors and people with disabilities themselves—have provided over 7,000 hours of technology training to approximately 1,500 participants. At Adult Day Services centers and beyond, they’ve helped us provide adaptive technologies and strategies to increase access for neighbors with vision and hearing loss. Most recently, we’ve  incorporated computer training and language support into our new SF ReServe initiative to match seniors and people with disabilities with part-time jobs at local community organizations.

Many of our awesome trainers, tutors and supporters were able to attend and are pictured below.

CLC Trainers and Staff at CTN Digital Leaders Award May 10 2017. By Steven Gregory Photography-0235

See more photos from the event below. Most photos are courtesy of CTN’s photographer, Steven Gregory Photography. 

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Internet Use May Cut Retirees’ Depression

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Spending time online has the potential to ward off depression among retirees, particularly among those who live alone, according to research published online in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. In the article “Internet Use and Depression Among Retired Older Adults in the United States: A Longitudinal Analysis,” the authors report that Internet use reduced the probability of a depressed state by 33 percent among their study sample.

Late-life depression affects between 5 and 10 million Americans age 50 and older. This new study shows that the Internet offers older Americans a chance to overcome the social and spatial boundaries that are believed to fuel depression.

The research was conducted by Shelia R. Cotten, PhD, of Michigan State University; George Ford, PhD, of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies; Sherry Ford, PhD, of the University of Montevallo; and Timothy M. Hale, PhD, of the Center for Connected Health and Harvard Medical School.

“Retired persons are a population of interest, particularly because one mechanism by which Internet use may affect depression is to counter the effects of isolation and loneliness, which are more common among older adults,” the authors stated. “Also, working individuals may be required to use the Internet rather than choosing to, and may use the technology for different reasons than those not working.”

The data were obtained from four waves of the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal survey collecting information from more than 22,000 older Americans every two years. The current study sample included 3,075 community-dwelling respondents observed over 4 waves of data, from 2002 to 2008, yielding a total of 12,300 observations.

The measurement of Internet use was based on a question asking participants, “Do you regularly use the World Wide Web, or the Internet, for sending and receiving e-mail or for any other purpose?” Depression was measured using an eight-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.

With other factors constant, the authors found that Internet users had an average predicted probability of depression of .07, whereas that probability for nonusers was .105. Based on the difference, Internet use led to a 33 percent reduction in the probability of depression.

“Number of people in the household partially mediates this relationship, with the reduction in depression largest for people living alone,” the authors wrote. “This provides some evidence that the mechanism linking Internet use to depression is the remediation of social isolation and loneliness. Encouraging older adults to use the Internet may help decrease isolation, loneliness, and depression.”

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The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences is a peer-reviewed publication of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation’s oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society — and its 5,500+ members — is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA’s structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.

Comcast Holiday Event Brings Gifts and Low-Cost Connections for Seniors

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IE Ambassador Onsite ReigstrationComcast and its Community partners brought low cost internet connections, free computers and more to seniors in a special holiday event hosted at Eastern Park Apartments.   Another fun registration event is coming soon.  Watch this space for details.  In the meantime. you can get more information and sign-up for Internet Essentials by going to their website http://InternetEssentials.com/Seniors and/or by calling 1-855-804-8010.

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Low-Cost, High-Speed Internet Now Available to San Francisco Seniors

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Comcast just announced a new pilot project in San Francisco to expand its Internet Essentials Program to include low-cost, high-speed internet access for low income seniors.  See pictures from the Press Conference at Lady Shaw Senior Housing below and learn more about this new opportunity for San Francisco to help bridge the digital divide in the Comcast press release.    DSC_0902

Community Living Campaign is pleased to work with its SF Connected partners – Self-Help for the Elderly, Community Technology Network and the Department of Aging and Adult Services – to make this Pilot Program an example for the country of what we can do to get and keep everyone connected. Stay tuned for more details soon!

 

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