Todd group pushes computer skills for seniors, jobs for youth
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Todd County's Healthy Community Partnership Group met again last week. They sat down at the Senior Center in Eagle Bend to define projects for the upcoming months.
Still looking at senior and youth retention issues, they decided to help senior citizens in the area acquire or polish up their computer skills and look at the problem of lack of jobs for young people in the Bertha area.
The group was established earlier this year in conjunction with the Initiative Foundation and has been a focal point for MPR News' Ground Level.
Charlie Crews, an octogenarian who taught computer classes to senior citizens in the Staples area, offered the use of his curriculum.
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"They need a very basic class," said Verna Toenyan, who has helped facilitate the Healthy Communities Partnership program. "We'll set up a bank of computers and work in teams. People who complete the class will earn a certificate."
With so much information available online, and with information distribution commonly made via computers, it's essential that senior citizens acquire the technical skills to keep up.
On the youth retention front, the group looked at the county's small towns and lack of jobs for high-school-age young people. On-the-job training and work skills are nearly impossible to acquire when there are few places of employment in a community: no fast food restaurants, no grocery stores, no theatres, bowling alleys or other places where teenagers can normally make a few dollars on evenings and weekends while learning the responsibilities of being employees.
Bob Larson of Marlowson Event Center and the Amish Country Co-op is willing to work with the Bertha school's business management classes and look into the potential for getting grant assistance to plan a program. With the hope of attracting tour buses to the co-op, Larson is looking at the possibility of hiring area youth to assist with the added traffic to the business while learning what running a business entails.
Both projects are steps in the right direction. Each small step can ultimately make a difference.