University Students Help Older People Learn Digital Skills

13:22, June 14, 2023

The project involved fifteen people from the Menorah Charitable Foundation

"Techno Grandchild" is a partnership project between students of the Department of Social Work of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of the Ural Federal University and the Menorah Charitable Foundation. Fifteen mentees of the Foundation aged 70-80 listened carefully, took notes, and followed the algorithm during face-to-face and remote meetings. In the first phase of the project, the participants were taught how to use the Public Services Portal of the Russian Federation (Gosuslugi). The focus of the project is to help the Foundation's older mentees master the use of digital skills.

"The implementation of the project began as part of project-based learning, but it will continue beyond the end of the semester. To implement the first phase, the team held a meeting with the client, the coordinator of the Caring Connection project at the Menorah Foundation, Elena Reshetova. At the meeting, they discussed the main features of working with the elderly and agreed on the expectations of the project. They prepared tips for participants on how to register, recover a password, make a doctor's appointment, and order a pension certificate. We then conducted three trial home visits to the wards to test the guides," said Margarita Baskina, coordinator of the League of Volunteers.

There was also an in-person meeting of the participants at Menorah, attended by ten listeners of the programs for the elderly. Video clips of the main themes of the programs were recorded and are now available on the Menorah TV channel. For those who were unable to attend the in-person meeting, the project team held an online meeting prior to which video instructions were sent to participants.

Once the project is completed at the university, it will become a full-fledged part of Menorah's ecosystem of programs already run by members of the Menorah Volunteer League - the Menorah Volunteer Center.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office. 
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