Celebrating Our Digital Mentors Making a Difference!
On Saturday the 27th of August we celebrated the achievements of our Be Connected Digital Exchange Program and our amazing Digital Mentors!
After the success of our Community and Intergenerational Digital Exchange program in 2020-2021 we began another round of the program in September 2021, made possible through funding support from the Good Things Foundation as part of the Australian Government Be Connected Program. The program termed cDEX and iDEX trains community members and high school students to become digital mentors to family and community members over 50 years of age, bringing digital literacy learning and support to those who need it.
Centre Manger Cristelle Govender explains
“The purpose of the program is to increase the confidence, skills and online safety of older Australians, empowering everyone to use the internet and everyday technology to thrive in our digital world. When COVID hit, we had to rethink the way we engaged with seniors and find new ways of reaching people, this was the beginning of the cDEX and iDEX program which has since enabled so much more than digital literacy.”
The program equips mentors with the essential skills to support people over 50 to improve their digital skills and confidence. Mentors don’t need to be experts, the emphasis is on people skills like empathy, patience and positive communication and the fact that everyone has skills and knowledge to share.
Over the last year, we trained 22 new community members and 70 new students to become Digital Mentors and they supported more than 164 community members, investing over 124 hours of their time. Mentors taught learners everything from taking photos, to creating email accounts, playing Wordle, using social media, identifying scams, online banking and more.
The outcomes of this program extend to more than just digital literacy. It helped build social connections for seniors and furthermore provided opportunities for young people to connect with their families and seniors in their community while building their own capacity as leaders. Summed up in the words of a young mentor
“I would like to say thank you so much for running the program, I have learnt a lot of things that I now apply in my daily life to assist others in not only using technology, but in learning other things as well.”
We are so proud of our Digital Mentors, they did a fantastic job, and it was wonderful to celebrate their achievements! Thank you to everyone who came along to our celebration including learners, family members, teachers and Jodie Harrison, Member for Charlestown. Congratulations to all the Digital Mentors who participated in our program, thank you for making a difference in your community and helping others to discover the digital world.
The Place is excited to announce that we'll be running another round of this program and are looking for community members of all ages and high schools from across the Hunter region to get involved. To find out more or express your interest contact Grace at
programs@theplacecharlestown.org.au or 02 4032 5500.
