Older people using digital inclusion to challenge isolation and loneliness in our community
Posts by volunteers, staff and session workers
We were closed — entirely for funding reasons — April and May 2019. We haven’t solved the underlying problem, but Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Association have given us a massive boost. We can use the space at Whitmore Community Centre — for free — on the first and third Friday of each month, so that is what we are doing.
We started again Friday 7 June, 2 to 5 pm as usual.
This episode is the first of a series of pilots for an updated Talking Food Radio. We used the same very basic equipment as the old radio show, and the same approach: conversation first, technology last. As the series progresses, we will adapt the recording method to suit the participants as well as the final goal – which requires much improved sound quality.
The pilot podcast track is a sequence of snippets from the 90-minute live recording. The discarded sections were generally the best conversation, but too noisily enthusiastic for the podcast medium.
The voices belong to: Brian, Grafton, Hyacinth, Ian, Mary, Nuala, Patricia and Rick.
Recorded 26 April 2019 at Whitmore Community Centre, N1 5NU.
Outro credit: excerpt from Horizontal Drift, Jared C Balogh – https://www.jamendo.com/track/1122560/horizontal-drift
Forty people were at Whitmore Community Centre, and they didn’t even know it was the final drop-in. Our regular volunteers were helped by four brilliant volunteers from Sidley Austin (via Benefacto).
Do you remember the Talking Food live radio show at the old computer centre? Here’s a refresher …
Considering the acoustic qualities of the centre (dreadful), the standard of our equipment (bottom of the market) and our budget (zero) — that radio show worked really well — it was live, we did it all ourselves, we had a full house every week, and it was a lot of fun. There was quite a lot to eat as well.
Seven years later — the equipment available has greatly improved, and we have a possibility of modest funding — so a Talking Food Radio Revival is top of the Hello Hackney to-do list.
Volunteer Gene has gone back to the USA 🙁
Gene was with us nearly every Friday afternoon for the last six months — very popular, totally reliable in every way, and uniquely irreplaceable.
Full and very busy. Six volunteers from Financial Conduct Authority (via Benefacto) helped our regular volunteer team deliver more than 30 success stories.
Brief excerpts from a much longer conversation – Hackney elders’ memories of school.
The voices belong to: Brian, Leonie, Megan, Rick, Wadley.
Recorded 18 March 2019 in the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, London E8 3DF, UK
We were full again. Volunteer Mike arrived with six laptops donated by his employer RKH Specialty. We hope to have them set up for the session next week.
As usual, we depended very much on our regular volunteers – Gene, Margaret and Tom were in today
What difference has it made to your life?
The web has transformed our daily lives — from how we communicate with loved ones to how we work to how we learn. But right now more than half of the world’s population remains offline, and those of us who are online see unsettling stories each day about data breaches, so-called ‘fake news’, and other ways that technology is threatening our freedom and privacy. We need to change this by building a better web — one that works for everyone, everywhere.
Excerpts from a much longer conversation about retirement – with people who have done it and others who haven’t.
The voices belong to: Andreas, Brian, Cathy, Clarenton, Marylin, Nicholas, Rick.
Recorded 11 March 2019 in the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, London E8 3DF, UK
