Allemaal digitaal!
The Campaign ‘Everbody Digital’ was launched on 1 September 2015. Upon Municipal Councillor Baldewsingh’s initiative, the covenant ‘Digitizing senior citizens’ was signed by The Hague City Council, the council of Leidschendam-Voorburg, the council of Rijswijk and 18 elderly and welfare organizations.
All those who signed the covenant committed themselves to the aim of actively assisting the elderly to become acquainted with the various facets of the digital world. In this way, councils, companies, organizations and professionals are combining their strengths in order to reach those who have little or no digital experience and encourage them to learn with enthusiasm. By this means, elderly people from The Hague, Leidschendam-Voorburg and Rijswijk have been expanding their own digital world.
FIRST CAMPAIGN
The first campaign for digitizing senior citizens called ‘Everybody Digital’ was spread out over a period of 3 months in 3 action areas of The Hague and the districts of Leidschendam-Voorburg and Rijswijk. Each action area had an active poster campaign both inside and outside (on glass and paper recycling bins, litter bins, windows and in bus shelters) and promotional material (folders, posters) were distributed in homes for the elderly, home care organizations, care and welfare institutions, bridge clubs and other clubs for the elderly, and 10 pop-up stores were set up in various libraries.
It was in those pop-up stores in The Hague, Leidschendam-Voorburg and Rijswijk that a specialist team went to provide information to the elderly and those living in their vicinity about the pleasures, advantages, usefulness and necessity of digitalization. Those who wanted to know more about the possibilities of using a tablet and any relevant courses were able to go to special information meetings given in a number of libraries. For the duration of the campaign there was a special telephone number elderly citizens could call to enquire about these information meetings and the courses made available to them.
OOIEVAARS (STORK’S) ART & CULTURE FESTIVAL
The campaign ‘Digitizing senior citizens’ had its own stand at the Stork’s Art & Culture Festival in the Atrium of the Hague’s City Hall on 28 November 2015. Various organizations offering courses and covenant partners were present, and gave demonstrations and information to visitors. The office of the Stork Pass was also represented at the Festival. The Stork Pass plays an important role in the digitalization of the elderly: it is with this pass that elderly citizens are able to get a discount for the courses they would like to take. The pass also gives them a discount on a tablet after following a tablet course. Many elderly visitors signed up for a course that day.