A grade 10 careers class at GDCI is part of a new initiative with Goderich Place (senior centre) and D.A.R.T(Domestic Assault Review Team), where students are connected with seniors in order to teach them about all the different applications available on tablets, laptops, and smartphones.
The students are paired with a senior citizen who then becomes their partner during the 1 hour, bi-weekly sessions. During these sessions the seniors are shown how to use apps like Facebook,Youtube, Google Maps, as well as Skype and Face-time, so the citizens of Goderich Place can video chat with their families.
The Elder Abuse Prevention Committee of Huron Country, is the group who applied for the grant. Gary Atkinson, was hired to as the project coordinator for the Cyber-Seniors project.
“There is going to be so many jobs in the future working with seniors, and this was a chance for our kids to see ‘do they like working with that part of the population?'”, says GDCI teacher Shelly Johnston. “After this experience I would say about a third of the class really might be interested, at some point in their lives, working with seniors”.
We at Avon Maitland would like to congratulate everyone involved, especially to our students who have shown great respect for the senior citizens of Huron-Perth.