Milan, Trenton YMCA seniors get funding for Spectrum digital grant
Advancing the digital literacy of West Tennessee seniors, Spectrum awarded two YMCA locations $14,000 in funding for digital literacy education.
The Milan Family YMCA and Northwest Gibson County YMCA were among 55 nonprofit organizations to receive funding from Spectrum in a total distribution of $1.1 million.
Several local legislators were in attendance to celebrate the occasion, including Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon, Rep. Brock Martin, R-Huntingdon, and City of Milan Mayor BW Beasley.
The grant pays for seniors to take four-week classes, free of charge, to improve their digital literacy skills, learning a variety of lessons from how to avoid scams to basic computer comprehension to smartphone knowledge.
The check presentation on Oct. 8 featured the program’s first graduating class of those 60 and older.
One of those graduates was Mary Bettie.
“We were working with Chromebooks, which a lot of us were not familiar with, but the instructors went through it step by step,” Bettie says. “We learned a lot about how to use the computer, how to set up your computer and how to stay safe on your computer.”
When asked what some of her key takeaways from going through the program were, Bettie says it was to “be careful” when roaming the Internet.
Though she used computers in her job before she retired 10 years ago, she reports that the class helped “refresh” her digital literacy.
“I do feel more confident, and the Y plans to do more classes, which will give me even more confidence and more knowledge of how to use the Internet and computers,” she said.
Improving knowledge, battling isolation
Sharon Fryman, Senior Program Director for Active Older Adults at the YMCA of Memphis and Mid South, says the classes will be offered a total of 10 times throughout the year and will potentially benefit 200 seniors.
Fryman says the program’s creation stemmed from questions like “How can we battle isolation in our communities?” and “How can we improve health outcomes?”
‘We knew there was a need for our seniors to become more comfortable with technology,” Fryman said. “Becoming more comfortable so that they’re not scared to get on their devices and able to be more connected?”
In an ever-changing technological world, the digital literacy classes bridge the gap for older adults in becoming more tech-savvy, particularly in rural areas.
A 2024 study from AARP focusing on the technology trends of adults found that two-thirds of adults over 50 expressed comfort with their technology skills, but that comfort diminishes with age.
“Having access to high-speed broadband [Internet] is just the first thing, but being able to actually utilize the services that we offer is next,” Zach Bates, Director of Government Affairs at Charter Communications Inc., said.
“That’s something that we’re very mindful of and that we take really seriously to make sure that we’re there, again, for the communities that we serve and that we’re able to provide these services to all our folks, but especially senior citizens, are able to utilize the products that we offer.”
For more information on how to sign up for the classes, contact the Milan Family YMCA in Milan at (731) 686-9000 or the Northwest Gibson County YMCA in Trenton at (731) 470-4277.
Sarah Best is a reporter for the Jackson Sun. To support local journalism, subscribe to the Daily Briefing at jacksonsun.com.