Project Wire Up — Volunteer-Led, Home-Based Digital Literacy Training for Low-Income Older Adults in Singapore

Project Wire Up is a digital-inclusion programme run by the voluntary welfare organisation TriGen in partnership with Singapore General Hospital, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and local senior activity centres, in the southeast region of Singapore. Delivered between July 2020 and November 2021, it targeted community-dwelling adults aged 55 and over who were digitally excluded and of low socioeconomic status — public rental housing residents or Public Assistance Scheme recipients with per-capita monthly household income under roughly USD 477.

Participants (n=138; 84 intervention, 54 control) were offered a smartphone for a one-time USD 15 cost plus USD 4 per month in mobile data, and volunteers delivered six one-to-one training sessions of one to two hours each in participants' own homes over three months (a median of 3.5 visits per participant). Family members or caregivers were encouraged to join sessions to reinforce skills such as video calling.

A nonrandomised controlled trial published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found the intervention group's digital literacy scores improved significantly more than the control group's (mean difference 2.28 points, 95% CI 1.37–3.20, P<.001), with the largest gains in practical, instrumental skills. However, the study is a cautionary case on secondary outcomes: it found no statistically significant improvement in loneliness (P=.62), social connectivity (P=.14), quality of life (P=.11–.45) or wellbeing (P=.69) versus controls.

The authors attributed the lack of change in social and wellbeing outcomes partly to participants' thin pre-existing social networks and low digital adoption among their peers, meaning new digital skills had few people to connect with. They also noted the trial used non-random group assignment and a baseline digital-literacy gap between groups, both of which limit how strongly the results can be generalised.

Read the full analysis: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365974123_Building_Digital_Literacy_in_Older_Adults_of_Low_Socioeconomic_Status_in_Singapore_Project_Wire_Up_Nonrandomized_Controlled_Trial