52 The Lawns, Home of Hackney Silver Surfers.

Screen shot of NHS MidLifeCheck website.

NHS MidLifeCheck.

In their own words:

NHS (National Health Service) MidLifeCheck is a free service to help you find out how you are doing. All your answers are private and no-one else can see your results.

URL: https://www.midlifecheck.co.uk/ .

Screen shot of the Be grand website.

Be Grand.

Be Grand is a website for grandparents.

In their own words:

We are here to help you navigate your way through the great, yet demanding, experience of being a grandparent.

The BeGrand.net site provides information, advice and a welcoming community for grandparents. We have articles, factsheets, quizzes, surveys, resources, activities and helpful guides to making best use of the internet, written in plain English.

URL: http://begrand.net/ .

Screen shot of Freedom Pass website.

Freedom Pass.

Your Freedom Pass will expire 31 March 2010!

This web site tells you how to renew at a Post Office. Renewals have already begun alpabetically …

• A/B/C/D/E surnames: 4-16 January.
• F/G/H/I/J surnames: 18-23 January.
• K/L/M/N/O surnames: 25-30 January.
• P/Q/R/S/T/U/V/W/X/Y/Z surnames: 1-6 February.
• If you miss your week, apply 8-13 February.

If you want to, you can fill in and print the application form online » go to the online form page.

URL: http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/freedompass/ .

Screen shot of WebGeezer page.

WebGeezer.

Just one succinct page. It won’t take you long to read it.

URL: http://www.boobam.org/webgeezermild.htm .

Screen shot of Real Help Now website.

Real Help Now.

Official government site about the economic crisis — information and news about the available support and where to go for help.

There is also a 37-page booklet for people over 60 at http://realhelpnow.gov.uk/pdf/over60s.pdf (pdf format, 267 kb).

URL: http://realhelpnow.gov.uk/ .

Screen shot of YouTube website.

YouTube.

YouTube is a ‘video sharing’ website — a place where anyone can place short videos that they have made themselves, to be watched by anyone else. It started in 2005, and is now huge (more than 6 billion videos viewed in January 2009). The best way to find something that might interest you is to use the site Search engine (at the top of each YouTube page).

URL: http://www.youtube.com/ .

We found some ‘silver surfer’ videos, and have embedded them on our own pages for you to watch …

• Silver Surfers.
• Silver Surfers’ Day 2009.

Screen shot of Gumtree website.

Gumtree.

Gumtree is a huge classified ads site, based in London and mostly free. Ad categories include ‘Flats & Houses’, ‘Services’, ‘Jobs’, ‘Stuff for Sale’. It’s not the only online classified ads site serving London — but it’s one we know about, and it seems to be popular.

URL: http://www.gumtree.com/ .

Get Safe Online logo.

Get Safe Online.

Detailed advice on how to protect your online security and privacy. Sections include

• Beginners’ guide — for people who are new to this.
• Safety test — find out how much you know, and what you don’t know.
• The risks — understand the problems.
• Protecting your PC — practical steps you should take at home.
• Avoid online rip-offs — safe online shopping and banking.

URL: http://www.getsafeonline.org/ .

Screen shot of Volunteering England website.

Volunteering England.

In their own words … “Volunteering England works to promote volunteering as a powerful force for change, both for those who volunteer and for the wider community. This web site offers a range of resources for anyone who works with or manages volunteers as well as to those who want to volunteer.”

URL: http://volunteering.org.uk/ .

Screen shot of Moving Here website.

Moving Here - 200 years of Migration to England.

In their own words … “The vision of Moving Here is to explore, record and illustrate why people came to England over the last 200 years, and what their experiences were and continue to be. Offers free access, for personal and educational use, to online versions of original material related to migration, including photographs, personal papers, government documents, maps and art objects, as well as a collection of sound recordings and video clips.”

URL: http://movinghere.org.uk/ .

ALISON — free online learning.

Screen shot of ALISON website.

ALISON (’Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online’) is a free online learning resource for basic and essential workplace skills. Course categories include …

• Digital Literacy & IT Skills,
• Enterprise & Business Skills,
• Financial & Economic Literacy,
• Health & Safety & Compliance,
• Health Literacy,
• Language Skills,
• Personal Development & Soft Skills.

They all look worthwhile, and ‘Digital Literacy & IT Skills’  is precisely what we do at Hackney Silver Surfers. We have picked out 3 free courses from this category which seem particularly relevant to our learners …

• ‘ALISON Basic Computing (ABC) IT’ is for anyone who needs to learn basic computing skills, or has a need to demonstrate to an international standard that they are fully competent in the use of a personal computer and common computer applications.
• ‘How to use Gmail’ uses the Web-based e-mail service from Google called Gmail or GoogleMail, to introduce you to the basics of e-mail. Gmail is an e-mail service which is accessed directly via the Web, and is not dependent on your using software loaded on your own personal computer (though it can be used in that way too). Our own seniors.org.uk email is a branded version of Gmail.
• ‘Identity Theft’ is particularly relevant to consumers anxious to protect their confidential information. It is also important to professionals in the insurance, banking, education, law enforcement, retail and healthcare fields who have a legal responsibility to protect their clients personal data.

We are trying to encourage more online learning, and this looks like a good one. Online learners generally work independently, either at home or in a drop-in computer centre like Hackney Silver Surfers. Anyone who would like help in moving to a slightly more advanced level — working mainly online, but with occasional group workshops — should contact Rick at hss@lawns.org.uk .

URL: http://alison.com/ .

Screen shot of TimeLine Magazine website.

TimeLine Magazine.

In their own words …  “TimeLine is an exciting lifelong learning project, centred on Hackney — the area of London where we are based. Working together with local communities, ordinary people discover and present a kaleidoscope of information about the history of their own area. By looking up from our own individual concerns, at the people and places around us, TimeLine has itself become a part of the local landscape. It is a way that people of totally different ages, cultures and backgrounds can communicate with each other – through the one thing we have in common: Hackney’s inspirational history and heritage.”

URL: http://timeline.org.uk/ .

Screen shot of Digital Unite Learning Zone website.

Digital Unite Learning Zone.

This is a place on the World-Wide Web for older people who are learning about computers and the Internet. They have tutorial sheets on about 60 topics. You can download these worksheets for free, print them, and work with them anywhere you have access to a computer. There is also a useful Question & Answer section. Signing up is easy — you just need an email address.

If you are not sure how to sign up or download the worksheets, please ask a helper at The Lawns how do it. By the way, The Lawns is a very good place to do these short beginner courses — you will always be with people who can help you.

URL: http://learning.digitalunite.com/ .

Screen shot of EntitledTo website.

EntitledTo.

A free web-based calculator to help people work out their entitlement to benefits and tax credits. People across the UK are missing out on benefits and tax credits worth more than £8 billion a year. Entitledto can help make sure you get what is yours.
Before you start to use the calculator, there are a few things that you will need to know. It will be easier for you to work through all the questions if you have gathered all the information before you start.

• Details of all your income eg state pension, occupational pension, disability allowance, attendance allowance, other state benefits and any earnings.
• Are you married or in a civil partnership, or living with someone as a couple? What is your partner’s income, including any benefits? We need to know this as you will be assessed as a couple.
• How much money do you have in savings, investments and other capital?
• How much is your annual council tax bill and do you get any help with it?
• Do you pay rent or mortgage? How much?
• Do you have anyone else, eg grown-up children, living with you? Are they in employment or on benefits? What is their income?
• Does anyone receive carers’ allowance for looking after you or anyone in your household?

URL: http://entitledto.co.uk/ .

Screen shot of Transport for London Journey Planner website.

Transport for London Journey Planner.

Work out how to get from one place to another by public transport. You state where you are going to start from, where you want to go to, when you will travel, and how you want to do it. The journey planner tells you the most likely quickest route by bus, train, tram or river — with a few alternatives, and maps for starting and end points. It works surprisingly well.

URL: http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/ .