Ruebun Guzman, Volunteer Boston Senior Home Care Opens New Computer Lab On Friday, May 9th Boston Senior Home Care (BSHC) celebrated the opening of a new computer lab at its Supportive Housing Program in Dorchester, MA. The open house event featured many residents, BSHC staff and Mr. Frank Quirk, our volunteer instructor, who is donating his time to teach our Supportive Housing residents how to use a computer. Boston Senior Home Care's Supportive Housing program is located at the Codman Square Apartments, 784 Washington Street in Dorchester; a Boston Housing Authority site with 105 residential units The program is a collaboration between Boston Senior Home Care, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston (VNAB) and Kit Clark Senior Services. The program is funded by the Executive Office of Elder Affairs. The computer lab consists of five (5) computer stations and a printer and is located in a vacant apartment previously donated to the Codman Task Force by the Boston Housing Authority. Classes for residents began the following Monday, May 12th. Five (5) two hour classes were taught over a 2 1/2 week period and several class sessions will be held on a regular basis throughout the year. The goal of the computer classes is to provide residents with an opportunity to become familiar with the mouse, dragging, clicking etc., as well as introduce them to the Internet...how to access it, navigate around the Windows screens, and to roam easily to various web sites using Google. During one of the sessions, trainees created Yahoo email addresses, established sign on id's and passwords and sent and received basic emails to each other. Residents will be able to practice what they learned in class by signing up for computer time. The lab is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1-4 and is overseen by one of the Codman residents, who is volunteering his time for this purpose. At the end of the first five week session, Mr. Quirk conveyed that the attitude and effort of the trainees was considerable. Despite having many barriers including physical and language, as well as first time keyboard and mouse use, they stayed with the challenge. Mr. Quirk tells us "I have never had a more enthusiastic class". Home | About Us | Getting Help | Services | Contact Us | Helpful Links | Careers | Site Map www.bshcinfo.org - Copyright (c) 2008 - All Rights Reserved E-mail webmaster. Best viewed with 1024 x 768 Resolution