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SHAPE Community Center

 

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For participating Elders at the Self-Help for African People through Education (SHAPE) Community Center, learning the computer basics with Technology For All’s Program Specialist Korey is the only way they’ve ever learned the computer.

“I’m the oldest one here,” says Dannie (to disagreement). “I don’t think I’d get up and come here for anyone but Korey.” Even she received a computer for Mother’s Day, she had no interest. “You learn because he has the patience to teach you. If you don’t understand, you can say so.”

“He makes it easy,” Gladys adds. “Everyone may get it but me. He will take the time with me as an individual, right there to make sure I get it. He doesn’t just assume I’ll catch up to everyone.” And for these Elders, patience makes all the difference. Dannie and Minnie’s children and grandchildren never had the time to teach them.

Gladys’s children showed her some steps, but the education ended there. “My kids told me, ‘you do this, this and this.’ So I just knew a couple steps. I didn’t understand the computer. I didn’t know what I was doing.” She couldn’t even check her email without help. But her classmates were just like her: inexperienced and uncertain. “Now if I do something crazy, I don’t care. We just laugh about it and learn something.”

“And he doesn’t stand over you. He sits down with you,” says Lillie. “I’ve never learned like I do with him.”

“When we started in July, we didn’t know how to turn the computer on,” Minnie says. “And everything’s online: bills, medication, everything.” Now Minnie plans to buy her own computer—a process Korey has also helped the Elders navigate online.

“The biggest thing,” Lillie says, “was when he said we can’t break anything. That was huge to hear.”

Another big lesson was the different ways to perform the same action. “And that’s good because we’re old and set in our ways,” Gladys explains. “You get used to a certain process, so when you realize ‘I can do what everyone else is doing this way,’ it makes you think ‘I’m not stupid. I just found something else.’”

“I really wasn’t interested before Korey,” Dannie says. “He takes time to show you what’s going on and what to do. We’re all learning.” If he leaves, she threatens to leave too.

If you’d like to support seniors empowering themselves and each other, you can help.

SHAPE Community Center offers computer classes, after school programs, and other resources to Houston’s diverse Midtown community. For more information, call or visit their Family Center at 3815 Live Oak, 713-521-0641, or their offices at 3903 Almeda Road, 713-521-0629.

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At the Self-Help for African People through Education (SHAPE) Community Center, located in Houston’s Midtown, senior citizens can join the Elders Institute of Wisdom, “a community-mentoring group of individuals who have achieved the respect of their community through their survival and work over the years.”

The elders taking Technology For All’s computer basics class in the SHAPE computer lab, however, are too busy teasing Program Specialist Korey to do much mentoring. Lillie describes how frustrated she was when Korey tried to do something for her during class. “I slapped his hand away and said, ‘let me do it!’”

This independent streak runs through the morning class, 10 people who see the value in digital literacy and in these classes. They have all tried other ways to learn: their children, local library classes, and college courses made them all feel too slow for the digital age. Instead of giving up, they jumped at SHAPE’s new computer classes. “We all start at the bottom together, and we all learn together,” Richard, a Vietnam veteran, says of the class. “When we do good, we make Korey sing for us.”

Now that they understand computers and the Internet, they are ready to learn the programs like Microsoft Office Suite. “We love this center,” Lillie says. “We couldn’t get this anywhere else. We need this.”

Their excitement comes from a place of discovery. Online usage, like banking, is a huge convenience. Many can’t or don’t drive, making them dependent on friends and family’s schedules for errands. “It’s harder than you’d think,” says Minnie. Gladys can get everything done online, on her time, without having to depend on rides, the bus, or walking through an unsafe neighborhood.

Gladys also uses her new skills to talk to her nephew, fighting overseas. “Once, the mail was two months late. I called everyone—I tried calling the President.” Richard nods his head. “When I was in Vietnam, if you didn’t get mail, you were sorry. It really does lift the spirits.”  Now Gladys can hear his voice. “Even if it’s a few minutes, it’s still something.”

If you’d like to support seniors empowering themselves and each other, you can help.

SHAPE Community Center offers computer classes, after school programs, and other resources to Houston’s diverse Midtown community. For more information, call or visit their Family Center at 3815 Live Oak, 713-521-0641, or their offices at 3903 Almeda Road, 713-521-0629.