A group of older people who have been learning how to use technology are introducing a film about the inventor of wi-fi, Hollywood legend Hedy Lamarr, as part of this week’s Storyhouse Women’s Festival.
Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr was known as the world’s most beautiful woman but she was also an ingenious inventor whose work is the basis for the technology we now cannot live without, including wi-fi, GPS and Bluetooth.
Her story is now the subject of a documentary film Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, produced by actor Susan Sarandon, and the Digital Buddies group from Chester are doing a short presentation prior to the film being shown on Friday, April 27.
Digital Buddies is a group of older people who meet weekly with volunteers who help them to use their phones, laptops and tablets for everyday activities.
The project is run by Chester-based social enterprise Here and Now who received funding from the Brightlife partnership which works to reduce loneliness and social isolation among the over 50s.
Realising the need to support older people with technology, the Here and Now team applied to Brightlife to fund the Digital Buddies project.
Brightlife is part of the national Ageing Better programme made possible by National Lottery funding from the Big Lottery Fund.
Heather Backstrom from Here and Now said: “At Here and Now we work to bring socially isolated people together in a friendly and relaxed environment. We realised a lot of the older people were interested in learning how to use technology – a few had been given tablets and mobile devices by younger family members – and so we came up with the Digital Buddies project and applied to Brightlife for funding.
“It works really well as we have volunteers such as IT students who come along and help them with all of the basics.
“These days a lot of this technology comes without any instructions so our volunteers take time to sit with them and write down step-by- step what they need to do to get connected.
“We have even helped people have video calls with relatives as far afield as Australia.
“Nowadays everything is online and older generations are having to catch up. Being able to make a difference to their lives in this way is incredibly rewarding and we are grateful to Brightlife for their support.”
Digital Buddies meet weekly at Storyhouse on Fridays from 10am to noon and at Upton Library on Wednesdays from 2–3pm.
To find out more visit: www.here-and-now-chester.com
