About Tech For Seniors / Quiénes Somos

Tech for Seniors is an innovative program that helps reduce social isolation for low income older adults. Started by a coalition of community organizations in South Bay, including Choose Well San Diego, Renewing Life, Sarsis, SoCAN, St. Paul's Senior Services, with funding from Community Congregational Development Corporation, the program pairs younger, tech savvy volunteers with older adults living in affordable senior housing, often without computers or access to Internet.

The program gives an iPad, as well as equipment necessary to connect to the Internet, to each older adult participant, and pairs them with a volunteer to show them ways they can use the iPad to engage with the world beyond their apartment. Volunteers, as well as staff funded by the program grantor, meet each participant at their community ten times over a six month period, to guide them at their own pace on how to use the tablets.

Each participant receives one-on-one instruction, in one hour classes, until they grasp the basics of using the iPad. They are then assigned to small groups where they can learn together. For some participants who have never held a tablet before, Tech for Seniors shows them how to open the case, turn on the iPad, and connect to WiFi. More advanced older adults learn to download apps, secure their devices, and take and send videos to their family living far away.

Early participants are expressing how satisfied they are with the program. Fluffy Dye, one of the 20 recipients of the first batch of iPads, said "I'm 78 years of age, and I just started this iPad class three weeks ago, and I didn't know anything about iPads, and each week now, I'm so excited to learn more. In today's class, I learned how to take photos, delete them, and go on YouTube. I can't believe how much I've learned in just three weeks. I recommend this program to anybody, everybody, and especially the elderly who think they can't learn, because then can. It's really exciting, I can hardly wait for next week."

One of the highlights of this program is that it is fully bilingual to serve Latino participants, which make the majority of the participants in the two communities Tech for Seniors currently serves, Congregational Tower and Silvercrest Residences, both in Chula Vista. Bilingual YouTube videos are sent to participants so they can review materials on their own.

The program grantors have funded the purchase of 40 additional iPads, for a total of 60, to allow more older adults to participate. However, engaging this many seniors effectively is no small task. While the program has paid staff to fill in the gaps, volunteers are the boots on the ground of Tech for Seniors, and because most volunteers are college students with changing schedules, more volunteers are always needed to help the participants in their one hour classes. Most volunteers participate two to four hours a month, and receive volunteer credits for their college classes.

To apply to volunteer, download the application here: https://volunteer.sarsis.com/

Based upon the success of the pilot project the first two years, demonstrated by a formal independent evaluation, the program was expanded to three more senior communities of the Chicano Federation. An additional 50 residents were served. Each received an iPad that they get to keep, and high quality, bilingual instruction. The program value at this point exceeded $500k in grants.

The County of San Diego saw the benefits of the program in reducing social isolation, and adopted a similar program to serve IHSS recipients and providers, focusing on mental health. Sarsis Health & Technology was selected to develop and administrator the program, later named Tech2Connect. The word "Seniors" was dropped to signify that the program served non-senior adults as well. Tech2Connect served over 1,700 people in San Diego County, and an internal study showed a statistically significant lift in client satisfaction. The program value at project completion was over $2 million.