• Great Bay Foundation Home
• About Us
  • Mission
  • Contact Us
  • Directions
• Blog Central
• Funding Guidelines
  • Who & What We Fund
  • Self Assessment Tool
  • Types of Grants
  • How to Apply
• Funded Projects
• Networking Events
  • About the Network
  • Conferences
  • Roundtables
  • Site Visits
• Resources
  • Digital Library
  • Podcasts

CyberSeniors

 

Entrepreneur: Elizabeth Isele

Address:
One Monument Way
Portland, ME 04101

Email: cybersrs@maine.rr.com
Web Site: http://www.cyberseniors.org/

Grant Amount: $121,000
 

Mission Statement

To enhance the health and well being of Seniors through technology.

Purpose of Grant

To help underwite the development of CyberHealth, a health education/intervention model that will create a new paradigm for elder healthcare.

Additional Information

CyberSeniors.org is an award-winning, nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting Seniors to the world at their fingertips. The program began with 12 seniors in Maine in 1998 and has expanded to28 states and the territory of American Samoa, and more than 28,000 seniors have been trained. It is a unique organization, providing successfully tested educational opportunities for Seniors to learn at little or no cost how to use computers and access the wealth of information available on the Internet.

Their premise (reinforced by recently published scientific studies documenting how challenging mental exercise stimulates brain cell growth in Seniors) is that use of the Internet can aid and equip Seniors to retain and/or regain their independence, dignity, purpose, health, long-term mental and physical well-being, and sense of community -- both real and virtual.

They have created Computer Learning Centers, a significant number of which are within Senior housing facilities, and an original community web site (http://www.cyberseniors.org) where Seniors can meet, test their "web feet" and learn how to navigate the larger universe of the Internet. They call it a people-powered site because seniors participate in the building of it.

In their Computer Learning Centers they are teaching Seniors how to use computers and access the Internet through a curriculum created specifically to meet the physical needs and learning capabilities of Senior students. All of their workshops are hands-on, so that every Senior learns at a computer. Each workshop has 8 students maximum, and the student/teacher ratio in each workshop is 2:1 or 3:1. It is an educational model that can be replicated anywhere.