This week I had my first session as a tech tutor at the non-profit Vivalon, located in the old Whistestop building in San Rafael. Vivalon is a resource center for Marin’s older adults and people with disabilities. I have had some experiences with volunteering/as a volunteer, both through organizations and on my own. I’m at the point in my life where I would like a more structured volunteer format, and I’ve got some tech knowledge, and this seemed like a good fit.
I got the idea from the examples my mom set, as she was a big-time volunteer and fund raiser at the Tiburon library. They had the ‘Net Sharks’, who similarly tutored people with all things tech. My mom used to love the Net Sharks and the impact they had on people’s lives, so I thought I’d give it a go. My first day consisted of four back-to-back 30 minute sessions, and I could not have been more pleased with how it went!
First off, the four ladies I tutored were delightful. With each of them, it felt a lot like being with my own mother, who passed away just a few months back. I’m grateful to have that feeling sparked inside of me!
One thing that stood out, these folks are very vulnerable through their phones and emails. One of the ladies had been hacked and all of her emails were going directly into her trash folder. With the help of Google we got that straightened out. These days, we can type just about anything into our computers and get answers and instructions.
Another lady hadn’t been hacked yet, but it may have only been a matter of time. We were going through her text messages and I was teaching her out to delete them and block scammers. She had several spam messages with links that should never be opened. After instructing her not to open these types of messages she almost opened another! She figured it was from DHL and she gets packages through DHL so it must be safe to open. The only problem was that it was made to look like it was from DHL. I’m hoping I was able to teach her to look more closely at the senders and how to spot frauds.
I’m not sure how long I’ll be volunteering at Vivalon, but for now I’ll be happy to do it every week for a couple of hours because this kind of giving back feels really good.
Happy Holidays!