The District of West Vancouver has been stepping in to make sure that seniors in need can still stay connected with their community.
Through a new program, the district has been collecting gently used tablets that are then being distributed to elders and older adults in the community at a time when the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need to stay physically distant as well as socially connected.
Jill Lawlor, the district’s seniors’ services and community wellness manager, said they’d been calling all 4,000 members of the Seniors’ Activity Centre, many of whom are low-income, to do assessments on how elders in the community were faring as the novel coronavirus crisis continues.
They learned that one of the biggest gaps that seniors were facing was losing access to their means of communication, according to Lawlor.
“They used to go to the library to use the public computers and now they don’t have that access, and as a result they’re not able to communicate via email or some of those things they usually check the web for,” said Lawlor.
The district recently put out a call to see if anyone had extra tablets they’d be willing to donate and since then people have been dropping off tablets everyday, said Lawlor.
“Our staff clean up the tablets, sanitize them, and then we turn around and deliver those tablets to seniors in need,” said Lawlor, adding that there’s a waitlist for seniors in need in West Vancouver who are still hoping to get a donated tablet.
“It’s been really heartwarming,” she said.
New or gently used tablets can be donated at the West Vancouver Seniors’ Activity Centre seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. everyday.
