For Immediate Release

Connected Canadians is a federally incorporated non-profit organization established in 2018 to help connect older adults with free technology training and support. Many Connected Canadians volunteers are new Canadians who are highly skilled technology workers, collectively they speak 12 languages. Volunteers benefit from the cultural awareness and conversational practice opportunities that come from their interaction with clients, and clients feel a sense of pride and connection in helping to welcome newcomers into the community.

Connected Canadians has established several programs in response to COVID, but we need community support to ensure we can meet the rapidly increasing need. Can you help?

Support for Families of Hospital Patients and Volunteers: Due to quarantining procedures in health care institutions, elderly patients, and the senior volunteers who used to help them, are now more physically isolated than ever before. To ensure that those with family or friends in hospital have the skills they need to connect with their loved ones, Connected Canadians has created a program to help families of patients get connected. Resources needed: additional technology volunteers to help families prepare to video chat with their loved ones (intermediate to advanced troubleshooting and problem-solving skills required) and devices / infrastructure.

Tech Hotline: Connected Canadians is providing technical help over the phone or online for seniors who need it. Resources needed: additional technology volunteers to help support the hotline (intermediate to advanced troubleshooting and problem-solving skills required) and funds to help support hotline infrastructure so that we can support seniors at a national-level.

Intergenerational Social Gaming: Connected Canadians is setting up social gaming circles, facilitated by our volunteers, to allow physically isolated seniors to interact with others via video and audio while playing a language-based game. Resources needed: additional technology volunteers to help support the gaming circles (basic technical skills and familiarity with video conferencing software required) and funds to help support the gaming infrastructure.

App Development: Intergenerational Social Gaming: While Connected Canadians has some tools in place right now for our social gaming program, we wish to build on some existing projects to create a smoother user experience for our clients. Resources needed: development skills (Go and JavaScript), graphic design, product analysis, and quality assurance skills; See skribbl.io for reference.

Mail-a-kit Program: As many seniors are now isolated both physically and socially, and many do not have technology tools available to them, Connected Canadians volunteers are able to work with seniors remotely to configure devices to send to them to use in isolation. Resources needed: devices, or funds for devices, infrastructure, and delivery, additional technical volunteers to assist with device configuration and remote support when the devices arrive.

Please sign up to volunteer or to otherwise participate at www.connectedcanadians.ca/covid-19

For media inquiries please reach out to media@connectedcanadians.ca.