Generations on Line

2023 was an outstanding year for Generations on Line we hit the goal of serving 300,000 older adults with our interactive internet training tutorials. We were honored to be among the first recipients of the new sarah ralston foundation awards to help support older adults. We also received a grant we shared with the west philadelphia senior community center to establish a fulsome Generations on Line training program there. A site visit confirmed the need and enthusiasm for this program. Of particular benefit was telehealth training, which we had launched during the pandemic. A grant to extend the outreach of that work and help senior find and register for covid vaccinations and boosters was awarded by the Pennsylvania department of community & economic development was awarded last year and completed this year just in time for the resurgence of the virus. There were conferences and health fairs and, for the first time, advertising investment, as well as public relations and media outreach. We continued to serve the neediest - at homeless shelters and poorest neighborhoods. That is where the obvious coincidence of digital illiteracy occurs. We participated in collaborations to ensure broadband reaches everyone, so we served on the Pennsylvania broadband development authority ( pbda ) stakeholder engagement working group to help create the submission for greater access, devices, and opportunity for skills advancement and saw the internet for all proposal from the commonwealth come to life, to garner significant funding for supplying broadband service to unserved and underserved areas, and supporting digital skills enhancement. But our focus was wider than the commonwealth where we are based. Those 300,000 users are nationwide and in all english speaking countries. We also created sip & swipe cafes in 31 states this year plus one in ireland - this makes 95 new facilities in the past three years - a feat during times of lockdown. We added kathy jedrziewski, deputy director, institute on aging, university of Pennsylvania deputy director for administration, alzheimer's disease center of penn geriatric --- to our board of directors and to our board of advisors, diane menio, outgoing executive director carie (center for advocacy for the rights and interests of elders (carie) an adjunct professor at st. joseph's university gerontology program and at the school of social policy and practice at the university of Pennsylvania. We continue to provide our network of senior centers, assisted living and retirement homes and public libraries with our monthly newsletters containing information, recruitment ideas, posters, blurbs for reposting, and tips to keep patrons engaged and safe online. In addition to the ongoing 5-star reviews for the apps, we liked this note from new covenant church: "i wanted to express my sincere appreciation for the remarkable features offered by the Generations on Line website. Your platform is undoubtedly a valuable tool in today's digital landscape."