inTouch - Rydal Crescent
Rydal Crescent with The Gateshead Housing Company
Digital Voice deliver inTouch courses to carers, Learning Disabled adults and older people across the north east. We have worked with Durham County Carers Support, Gateshead Council, Gateshead Housing Company, Live at Home, Woodhouse Close Church Community Centre and Winlaton Community Base as well as more recently, Bernicia Homes.
The aims of inTouch are to help organisations and housing providers improve the digital skills of their customers and help them use their online services as well as stay safe online.
Courses are run on iPads and include basic iPad skills, finding things out online, contacting family and friends via email, skype and social media, taking and sharing photos, shopping online and internet security.
Learning is supported with handouts, and courses are delivered by a highly experienced trainer.
The Gateshead Housing Company asked us to design some bespoke courses to suit their tenants’ needs, such as navigating the housing company website, reporting repairs, looking for housing, etc.
At Rydal Crescent Communal Lounge, we ran six two-hour training sessions, for a group of 9 residents of a lovely independent living scheme. Some knew each other, some didn’t use the lounge much, so it was a great opportunity for people to meet up and get to know each other. The group took turns to make cuppas and the sheltered scheme officer provided biscuits and support.
The group all mentioned how much they got from the extra support we offer by providing an assistant trainer as well as the lead facilitator. This ensured the training was more successful because people were then able to ‘keep up’ so learned more effectively.
Feedback
Testimonials from this course showed how successful it was for building confidence, social cohesion and giving people the confidence to use modern technology. We left the group with the tools to shop safely online, solve problems through online help resources and keep in touch with family. The group all expressed a wish to continue learning with us and we devised a second course to build on the skills they’d developed. Learners enjoyed the fun, informal style of learning with the right amount of support to progress, and trainers who understand their needs and know how to support them.
“ I thoroughly enjoyed it. Learned a lot and I think an iPad is definitely going on the Christmas list! ”
- Participant