Los Angeles native Candace Walker is the visionary behind Technology Join. Technology Join helps to pair native L.A. highschool college students with older adults to shut the digital divide. Teenagers turn out to be tech mentors and earn neighborhood service hours by guiding “seasoned adults” to navigate the web. The social affect motion is remodeling the best way older generations work together with know-how.
Teenagers turn out to be tech mentors via video chatting and guided tutorials. In return, college students earn neighborhood service hours, job coaching, and even pay via LA County’s Youth@Work program. Technology Join pairs native L.A. highschool college students with older adults to shut the digital divide in probably the most human approach potential. In a current interview with the L.A. Sentinel, Walker mentioned the imaginative and prescient for Technology Join and why closing the digital hole throughout generations is so vital.
In 2020, throughout the pandemic, Candace Walker launched Technology Join as a pilot program for the Inglewood Senior Middle. Like different organizations seeking to keep related, Thomas Uwal mentioned sure to Walker and gave Technology Join a spot to start out.
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“What we do is we just about join teenagers with what I name ‘season adults.’ I really like the double and triple entendre with seasoned versus senior, as a result of when you’re seasoned, you’re an knowledgeable in your area, and seasoned means you have got a little bit of taste. With all that persona, we welcome them to return and be taught primarily about know-how, and what they stroll away with is a lot extra,” defined Walker.
“Our teenagers come to earn neighborhood service hours or, in some instances, compensation, however what additionally they stroll away with is a lot extra. The pilot had a convincing affect, and that gave us the momentum to maintain on going.”
The preliminary thought for Technology Join derived from Walker’s personal multigenerational expertise at house watching her teenagers assist her widowed mom navigate a smartphone. That on a regular basis expertise bloomed right into a nationwide answer for combating tech illiteracy, loneliness, and generational disconnect.
When requested about Technology Join earlier than the pandemic, Walker shared, “I’ve a multi-decade background in media. I used to be the vp of Programming and Unique Productions at BET’s pay-per-view channel. I labored at BET Correct, CNN in Atlanta, and HLM.
“Throughout these years, I turned a single mother, and my mother misplaced her husband. She got here to reside with us, and she or he might barely function the distant. I leaned on my center faculty teenagers on the time to assist with my mother and my mother to assist with my teenagers basically,” she recalled.
“I launched a product known as Earnstr, it was an app within the Apple app retailer and Google Play. It was a approach for teenagers to transform their duties to foreign money. I cherished it nevertheless it wasn’t gaining traction. I rapidly discovered we needed to broaden the viewers. I went to get my Grasp’s out of USC, and that helped me form the pivot from Earnstr to Technology Connection. We appeared on the senior marketplace for in-person assist, however the pandemic hit, and compelled us to make the service utterly digital.
“We by no means moved on from that mannequin as a result of it permits us to scale. Anybody from anyplace will be part of Technology Join and give attention to know-how. Child boomers are turning 60 on daily basis, they usually wish to age in place, however they’ll need assistance mastering know-how. Teenagers are educated to help seasoned adults in a approach they will perceive with compassion and endurance, to information them with their telephones, computer systems, or Alexa. In return, they get golden nuggets, life classes that they’ll by no means get within the classroom. Everybody’s confidence will increase.”
Walker says when you take the small step, they are going to do the remainder. She believes that Technology Connection is precisely what is required to embrace the brand new digital age. Their mission is to democratize know-how in a approach that’s reasonably priced, accessible, and comprehensible by all populations with a one-on-one information.
Study extra about Technology Join on-line at generationconnect.io or name their 24/7 on-demand hotline at (877) 839-3360.
