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 Lakeland,
Florida | January 21, 2003 |
Mostly Cloudy, 64° > |
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Published Sunday, January 19, 2003 WHO'S AFRAID OF A MOUSE?
Housing Authority Helps Seniors Navigate the Information Superhighwayeric.pera@theledger.com LAKELAND Dressed in their Sunday best, Dot Sanders and Cookie Baldwin sojourned in cyberspace recently, joining a small-but-growing group of wired seniors who view the Internet as an antidote to solitude. For Sanders and Baldwin, the nudge across the digital divide came from the federal government through a grant designed to help public-housing residents of all ages become self-sufficient. Last week's event at Cecil Gober Villas, a Lakeland housing complex for people 62 and older, was to inaugurate a center where residents can access computers and take courses in computer technology. "I'm going to be down here every day to just send e-mail to my granddaughters in Atlanta, and my grandson," said Baldwin, a Gober resident. "I don't want to learn everything on that Internet, but learn how to do online shopping." Her neighbor, Sanders, also looks forward to using the center as a link to distant relatives, saving her money on long-distance phone calls. "I'll be e-mailing my son and daughter-in-law," said Sanders, 69, "and keeping up with the world." Sanders, a retired certified nursing assistant at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, was required to learn some computer basics for her former job. But like so many retirees, she shied from fully embracing the technology, and never purchased a computer for her home. Now she and her neighbors have only to walk a few steps to a community center furnished with two personal computers, a printer, a table and chairs. It's one of two technical learning centers managed by the Lakeland Housing Authority and funded with federal HOPE VI funds. LHA's Westlake complex has a learning center with 10 PCs, and similar centers are scheduled to open in two months at the Bonnett Shores and Paul Colton complexes. Only the Gober center is solely for seniors. The other centers will be for public housing residents of all ages, including children. The housing authority plans to hire a full-time coordinator to oversee the centers, schedule classes, order supplies and act as liaison to area adult vocational centers, said Kurt Bradley, resident services manager. LHA residents, many of whom lack transportation and evening child care, will be able to access online vocational and GED classes, Bradley said. To date, $41,627 has been spent on the technical centers, he said. The money is a portion of a $21.8 million HOPE VI grant awarded to the LHA in August 1999 to replace dilapidated public housing with communities of mixed incomes. A component of HOPE VI is to help public housing tenants --many of whom are single mothers -- end their reliance on welfare. The help extends to seniors who were forced to move from public housing projects that were razed as part of HOPE VI redevelopment. Many of those seniors live alone, separated from their network of friends and relatives. They are the ones most likely to benefit from the housing authority's technical centers, boosting their ability to communicate, shop and access information on health, Medicare and other vital issues. Nationwide, only 15 percent of those 65 and older -- roughly 4 million -- actively go online, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, which funds a study to examine the social impact of the Internet. The top five uses of the Web by seniors include sending e-mail, looking up hobby information, seeking financial information, reading the news and checking weather reports, the Pew study found. To help ease seniors onto the information superhighway, a Philadelphia-based company called Generations Online has developed a Web site and software that uses large type and a clutter-free portal for navigating. All of LHA's technical centers are connected to the Generations Web site. Information is available at www.generationsonline.org.
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