Bhanu contacted CCL for help with accessing digital support. She lives alone and described herself as feeling isolated and ‘out of loop’. In particular, she felt that her lack of computer skills and having no computer at home was a key barrier for her. One of her main motivations to learn was that she could not see her adult children during the COVID-19 lockdown and wanted to begin chatting with them face to face on Zoom.

Through our knowledge and partnerships with other Lewisham services we were able to put her in touch with ‘Catbytes Community’, which runs a weekly IT drop-in service every Tuesday afternoon as well as offering free long-term loans of donated IT equipment to its members. Since she did not have a computer of her own and was struggling financially, Catbytes delivered a free Tablet computer to her home and helped set up Zoom for her.

She is now able to have regular contact online with family and friends and is learning how to search the internet to find out independently about activities and services in Lewisham. She now plans to attend the Tuesday drop-in session where she can receive 1:1 support from volunteers to learn basic IT skills.

Do you or does someone you know need support like Bhanu? Refer for help here