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Good practice Imported

Connect Seniors to the Digital World

Germany · Berlin · Transnational · See the Germany profile

Digital Media is essential for communication and participation in society. Although senior citizens could benefit from digital opportunities, they are the population group which is often not yet online. Therefore, the project "Connect Seniors to the Digital World" (CSDW) empowers

45 people
Multipliers trained as e-facilitators (2016–2018)
130 people
Senior citizens empowered to be digitally active (2016–2018)

Details

Promoter
Stiftung Digitale Chancen — website
Type
Service
Status
Ended
Target groups
Elderly people
People reached
130
Period
2016-09-30 – 2018-09-29
Region (NUTS)
DE30
Keywords
communication, participation, digital media, digital opportunities, senior citizens

Context

Senior citizens are often among the more isolated groups in urban societies, a problem compounded by low digital competence. 'Connect Seniors to the Digital World' (CSDW), led by Stiftung Digitale Chancen with partners in Lithuania, Romania, Spain and Germany, set out to close this gap using trained intermediaries ('multipliers') based in libraries, digital-competence centres and retirement homes.

Objectives

Empower senior citizens to use tablet computers independently and benefit from digital opportunities in daily life, by training front-line social workers and volunteers as e-facilitators.

Activities

A blended-learning qualification covering technical and pedagogical content plus practical application with seniors was developed and tested in Lithuania, Romania, Spain and Germany. Multipliers working in libraries, digital-competence centres and retirement homes were trained as e-facilitators to run training/support sessions for seniors.

Results

45 multipliers were trained as e-facilitators, and they in turn empowered 130 seniors to become digitally active, gaining skills such as using Skype and accessing online books.

Conclusions

The source states 'Evaluation: Yes' and cites EU/lessons-learned pages, but the description reports reach counts (multipliers/seniors trained) rather than a comparison-group study.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Costs cover blended-learning curriculum development and multi-country trainer (multiplier) training; no budget figures given in the source.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Project ran approximately 2 years, September 2016 to September 2018.
Staffing & skills
'Multipliers' — social workers and volunteers based in libraries, digital-competence centres and retirement homes, trained as e-facilitators

Conditions for success

  • A blended-learning curriculum combining technical and pedagogical training, tested across 4 countries
  • Host institutions (libraries, digital-competence centres, retirement homes) willing to embed multipliers
  • Consortium of national partners (SDC, VIPT Lithuania, EOS Romania, CIDET Spain) to adapt the model locally

Common failure modes

  • Relies on continued availability/retention of trained multipliers after the project ends
  • Reach (130 seniors) is modest relative to the target population of digitally excluded seniors
  • No independent measurement of longer-term digital-skill retention

Where it fits

Governance type
transnational NGO/foundation consortium (EU co-funded)
Scale
transnational
Income level
mixed EU (Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Romania)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes ESF+ — European Social Fund Plus

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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