LoveIT

Member Organisation: Age Concern Rotherham - Vinvolved Project

LoveIT is a series of simple computer courses designed for the new "silver surfers" who need a little more help getting online. We offer 2 hour sessions covering basic computing or introduction to the internet and emailing over the weeks' event. This Summer we are holding LoveIT at The High Street Centre, Rawmarsh, Rotherham 16th-20th August. All sessions are FREE and we aim to recruit enough enthusiastic young volunteers to enable each course attendee one-to-one assistance. This method of teaching new technology has been found to be the most effective in meeting the needs of our older students, our volunteers also enjoy working closely with one person and being able to see their student gain confidence in working with new technology.

This Summer we are offering our older IT students an opportunity to learn about a few subjects in more depth. So on Monday afternoon 1.30-3.30pm we will be having a session devoted to Podcasts and downloading music from the internet; on Tuesday morning 10am-12pm a session on Shopping Safely online will, and Tuesday afternoon 1.30-3.30pm Social Networking. If any young volunteers would like to help write/present these sessions please contact Claudia or Gwen on 01709 386831. We will be using Powerpoint to deliver these sessions which will then be followed up by one-to-one assistance during which time our older students will have an opportunity to practice what they have learnt.

We offer our young volunteers a mornings induction training on Monday 16th August 10am-12pm and support throughout the time they are volunteering for Age Concern Rotherham LoveIT programme. As the only Age Concern in the country that is also a V project, we can guide our young volunteers to work towards V awards such as the V50 and V Impact awards. We also offer all our volunteers the opportunity to get involved in the Volunteer Forum, attend social gatherings and contribute to our Volunteer Newsletter as well as being automatically entered for our monthly volunteer draw with a prize of a £10 gift voucher up for grabs.

Quotes from young volunteers "I'm actually really surprised at how easy it has been to become involved with this volunteer work, and I'm pleased to be able to give something back to my community" "At first I was sceptical about what it would be like, but as soon as I arrived, I knew that I would be happy here and it would be enjoyable"

For more information about LoveIT and other volunteering opportunities visit our website www.ageconcernrotherham.org.uk

For a video about the LoveIT event created by our team of Community Reporter volunteers please visit the website.