By TIM GERLACH

This week, AARP announced selection of awardees of its 2024 Community Challenge Grants – and Koochiching County has made the cut.

The Koochiching Technology Initiative, KTI, was selected as one of 343 from more than 3,300 applicants from around the nation for its Generation-to-Generation, G2G, Student Digital Navigators proposal.

The KTI project is targeting seniors, yet open to all county residents, and will include local teens and adult supervisors offering three, four-hour classroom courses over two evenings. The basics of using computers, the internet, email, online security, and more will be covered. The project budget is $15,000 with AARP contributing $11,775 and a local 25-percent match provided by Marshall N. Knudson Family Community Fund and Koochiching Community Development Association.

Generation-to-generation

The new trainings are based on trials conducted last winter with G2G students at events hosted by West Falls Estates and the Veterans’ Lodge at the Backus Community Center.

In those, the teens worked with seniors, veterans, and others. It was well-received and underscored a need for more to be done to bridge the digital divide. The events also provided an opportunity for different generations to interact – and it was not only the older folks doing the learning. The young people also enjoyed and learned from the experience.

New twists

Participants in the new courses that may need a device can take a laptop home upon completing two sessions. Some may prefer to bring their own device, and that is also fine. KTI will be partnering with St. Paul-based PCs for People to supply good quality refurbished laptops.

This time around, the teenagers will have an opportunity to earn money – both for themselves and others. As G2G digital navigators they will be eligible to receive a stipend of $800 for their time, which is estimated at 20-25 hours over about four months.

As a bonus, they will also be able to earn money for their high school team or club or a charity of their choice through Teens Teach Tech, a digital literacy program developed by AT&T and the Public Library Association. This program is offered through Connected Nation, which will supply $10 toward fundraising for each digital skills unit a teen covers with a participant.

Jaci Nagle, 2024 KTI chair, thanked AARP as well as the other project supporters.

“This simply would not be possible without the generous support of AARP and our other partners,” she said. “…please stay tuned for more details on dates and locations, which we’ll start promoting later this summer.”

Interested?

If you are a high school-age student interested in helping people as a G2G digital navigator, or if you want to reserve a spot in one of the upcoming computer skills courses, please call 218-283-7049 or email your request to info@koochiching.tech.

Gerlach is the ACC AmeriCorps Member serving at Koochiching County.