Over-55s in Caerphilly County Borough are being offered free help and advice to reconnect with friends and family via the internet.
The new Love to Reconnect campaign, which is part of the wider Get IT Together programme running across Caerphilly and nationwide, is a joint initiative between BT and national charity Citizens Online.
As part of the campaign BT employees in Caerphilly are volunteering to get people online for the first time, showing them how the internet can help them to stay in touch with friends and family.
Physical distance can often be the cause of people losing touch.
In a recent survey, BT found that almost half (46%) of people had lost touch with someone because that person had moved to another part of the country and almost a quarter (24%) lost touch because their friend or family member had moved abroad.
Simon Paul, Community Investment Manager at BT said: “Around 8.5 million adults in the UK have never used the internet, and the majority of these people are over 55. The focus of this campaign is helping people in Caerphilly to reconnect and stay in touch with friends and family through the internet. Email is a convenient and easy way of reconnecting and staying in touch, but 56% of over 65s have never sent one. Working with Citizens Online and our own BT employees, we want to help change that.”
Get IT Together Project Coordinator, Kerry Goodenough, is hosting two free internet taster sessions on the following dates:
Monday February 13 – Between 2pm and 4pm at Bedwas Arts Centre, Newport Road Bedwas CF83 8BJ
Thursday February 16 – Between 10am and12pm and between 2pm and 4pm – Bargoed Library, Bargoed CF81 8RP
Kerry Goodenough, Get IT Together Project Coordinator said: “It is really exciting to be working on this campaign in Caerphilly at this time when there is such a buzz about reconnecting with friends and family.
“I am looking forward to meeting and helping individuals who may not yet have had chance to find out about the benefits of the internet and hope people will take the opportunity to come down to our sessions to find out more.”