The St. Louis Monsanto YMCA has the largest population of participating African-American seniors out of any YMCA in the country.
Walk into the gym and a 92-year-old African-American woman is leading a chair-aerobics class to a high-energy rhythm. She doesn’t skip a beat.
Walk into the coffee room and almost every seat is full of ladies playing cards or chatting about their classes. Among them is a water-aerobics instructor who is also in her 90s.
“We call this our country club,” said Mildred Boyd, 81, community organizer for the Monsanto YMCA at 5555 Page Blvd.
One of the biggest attractions at the “country club” is the computer classes for seniors, said Boyd, who organizes the classes and sometimes leads them.
On a Friday in January, Boyd looked at the 10 African-American women who had stationed themselves at the computers – a few nearing 90.
“I’ll tell you something cute,” she said. “I came in this morning and read the roll, and I told them, ‘Not one of you is registered for this class.’”
As the registered students filtered in, the class crashers had to give up their computers and sit in chairs nearby to follow along.
“We’re a big lab family,” she said. “We’re not going to run anyone away.”
81-year-old computer instructor
Boyd retired from a career of facilitating job training and employment from MERS (now MERS/Missouri Goodwill) in 2001, but she didn’t stay retired for long. When she joined the YMCA as a retiree in 2002, they were looking for help with their Welfare-to-Work program.
“So I joined part of the employment team,” Boyd said.
The seniors kept telling her that they wanted computer classes.
Computer use among Americans 65 and older has doubled in the past 10 years, while internet usage among that age group has more than tripled, according to the Pew Internet Project.
In 2004, Boyd asked the executive director about starting a computer program, and he agreed. When the woman in charge of the classes left her position, Boyd taught them herself. Thankfully someone came to her rescue – a representative from OASIS, a national nonprofit that provides educational and volunteer opportunities to seniors.
Partnering with OASIS
“She was doing it all on her own,” said Sharon Hales, community outreach manager for OASIS. “We were able to provide her with evidence-based curriculum.”
In 2011, nationwide enrollment into OASIS’ technology classes topped 7,700 in 90 locations.
Now Boyd organizes the classes at the Y, and when a teacher can’t make it she will step in and teach.
One of the students, Minnie Hall, 88, started taking classes about five months ago. Recently, she bought herself a computer so she could practice at home.
“I love to try to learn things, and the computer has so many things that you would never dream,” she said. “You don’t get too old to learn, but it’s a slow process.”
The computer students have bonded. In December, the students pulled together funds to throw a holiday party for the teachers. Many have already taken every single class available, and they are now starting to take them all again. However, many, including Hall, just pop in unexpectedly whenever they are in the area.
“I enjoy seeing the elderly ladies try to learn,” Hall said. “It’s the most beautiful thing to happen. As you get older you forget it. They are so sweet to you here.”
From learning to working
While the program started off as a way to connect seniors with their families and technology, it has expanded. As more and more seniors try to get back in the workforce, Boyd and OASIS have offered tailored job-training skills. AT&T, which sponsors the YMCA’s program, is aware of this trend and encourages offering computer classes that would help.
“We all know you don’t just walk in and ask for an application anymore,” Hales said. “More often you fill them out online. We have refocused our program so if you want to go back to work, we can help you do that.”
The program recently helped Patricia Young, 73, to obtain a position with Cardinal Ritter High School. As a retired dental assistant, Young said her money from Social Security is not paying the bills. She spoke highly of her OASIS teachers. They took her from not knowing how to turn on a computer to feeling comfortable with the various programs.
“Now I feel I can go out and use those skills,” Young said. “I need to work to help pay these bills. Most jobs you get, they want you to be able to work a computer. This is something I can use and something I really want to do.”
Rebecca Rivas wrote this article as part of the MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellowship, a project of New America Media and the Gerontological Society of America. This is the first article in a four-part series.
LINKS
http://pewInternet.org/Reports/2010/Older-Adults-and-Social-Media.aspx
