Staying healthy and engaged as we age is no easy matter these days. But with a little help from our friends, we can be informed and empowered to do just that.   

Sessions build on the experiences of earlier Peer Advocacy trainings, with many graduates now leaders in the Community Living Campaign.

We would like to invite you to a preview session for the Community Living Campaign's new Healthy Aging Connections Workshops.  An introductory session is set for

Friday, July 27

10:00 to 1:00 (including lunch)

Eastern Park Apartments, 1280 Laguna Street    

 Workshop topics, presented in a fun and interactive way, will include: 

• Assessing your own personal goals related to Healthy Aging
• Learning how to build a network of support to help you reach those goals.
• Important documents every senior should have prepared and stored in a manner that is safe, security and accessible in an emergency.
• Proven ways to prevent isolation and loneliness
• Tips and resources for how you or a loved one can survive a hospital stay and enjoy a smooth transition back home.
• Simple, on-line tools that can support our efforts to be informed and empowered as we age.
• Increase access to individuals and information that can strengthen our networks of support.        

Full Healthy Aging Connections Four-part Training Workshops will be will be August 17, 24, 31, and September 7th.   Workshops are free, but space is limited. 

     Janis Kaempfe is a mainstay at the computer lab at 360 Valencia and Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center.  Here is what Janis has to say about her work:

     "With the Community Living Campaign, I am helping seniors learn how to use computers. The seniors I work with want to know more so they can communicate more fully with their children, relatives and friends.

     When asked to write something about helping seniors to learn how to use computers, I immediately thought of the lines from the song "Getting to Know You" from the musical The King andI; "If you become a teacher, by your pupils you'll be taught".

     Like myself, all of the seniors I teach want to communicate with their family, friends and the larger world around them. If it is difficult or impossible to visit with all of the people who are part of our lives, computers offer a great way to stay connected and communicate with those we love.  Computers can also provide an avenue to discover and expand our world through information on subjects we want to know more about, such as news, health information, government services or even entertain us with TV, movies, music, art and writing.

     The seniors I work with are a very diverse group in education, background and interests.  The reasons they want to learn about how to use computers vary immensely.   For example, one of my students finds the websites of publishers and contacts them to receive books, then  writes and sends reviews of the books to the publishers.  Another student wants to find a way to translate an email from English to Mandarin as well as knowing how the translation would sound in Mandarin. Others have wanted to listen to music from another country or watch TV in another language.  Together we found and use these resources on the Internet.   

     The ways we can use computers to expand our lives is as endless as our interest and imagination. And through the seniors I have enjoyed teaching, I have learned more about all of the resources a computer has available to pursue own individual interests." 

Come say Hi to Janis on Monday mornings at 360 Valencia or Wednesday morning at Tel-Hi, 660 Lombard Street in her neighborhood.