Social Communication Centers
CCLAC Social Communication Centers are turnkey, self-replicating centers that foster a teaching/learning relationship between youth and adults, including disadvantaged youth, ESL youth and seniors.
Youth are often very adept at using technology and the internet, but often at the expense of inter-personal relationships—they can become disconnected from ‘real life’ social skills like discussion, debate, and diplomacy.
We encourage youth to use their digital skills in a positive way. We honor their skills and encourage them to use those skills as volunteers and youth leaders in their community.
This is a great way to get kids off the couch and away from the Twitterverse—we show them how to use their digital skills to benefit others and invest in their future.
By forming one-on-one relationships between youth and seniors, CCLAC Social Communication Centers also introduce IT-savvy youth to older mentors who can teach them how to navigate family dynamics, career challenges and life choices.
Our program also helps adults and seniors gain the skills they need to thrive in a digital age. Adults can select activities from our self-directed curriculum, and our youth volunteers will help them learn how to access their bank accounts and medical records, safely store passwords, save and send photos, connect with loved ones on social media, apply for jobs, and study genealogy.
CCLAC Social Communication Centers can be incorporated into any existing classroom or venue. We work with our partners to customize our program to your needs.
SkillVillage
SkillVillage is a self-guided activity guide that helps students teach adults and mentor them in digital literacy.
The SkillVillage activity guide is protected by a Creative Commons License that allows centers to duplicate and share the material freely.
SkillVillage lets seniors choose the skills they would like to learn. It could be anything from learning to pay bills online, to researching their family’s genealogy.
SkillVillage provides instructions, steps, tips, and suggested sites so that students have a basic lesson plan for every activity. We also recommend spending some time in each lesson just exploring the internet and having fun together.
SkillVillage is a replicable and customizable program that can be adapted to your demographic needs and to fit into existing education and outreach programs.
Legacy Letters
Legacy Letters is a program we are creating to help seniors write letters about their life experience—to their children, grandchildren, extended family and friends.
As part of our SkillVillage activities, our youth volunteers help seniors reminisce about their lives, and capture these moments as letters, documents, memoirs and even audible interviews. Our hope is that students will also learn some life lessons and enjoy one-on-one mentorship from the very seniors to whom they have been assigned.
Legacy Letters exercises are broken down into small bites, so seniors and youth together can enjoy the experience. We recommend conducting some SkillVillage exercises first, and then finishing each session with a brief “memory moment” to record in the senior’s Legacy Letters journal.
The journal comes in an 8”x10” format in both print and online formats. It includes topic suggestions and questions meant to stimulate memory walks and the sharing of life experiences and lessons.
Legacy Letters journal entries can be re-created as letters and cards, appropriate for gifting to the senior’s family on important occasions like childbirth, baptism or christening, birthdays, and anniversaries. The letters can also be strung together and published as a memoir for current and future generations.
(Our Legacy Letters program is still under construction.)