Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 CANADIAN HR REPORTER WEEKLY A lifetime of providing tech support to family and friends has spurred the creation of a new volunteer network by two Ottawa tech workers. "For the last 16 to 20 years, we've been tech support for everybody in our intermediate network," said Emily Jones Joaniss, co-founder and CEO of Connected Canadians, a non-profit volunteer organization. "It occurred to us that we should take this hobby that we've had for years and combine it into something that will be more scalable and reach more people because both of us are kind of frustrated at the fact that even though we could help people on our own, we really couldn't reach that many, and this was an obvious need." Joaniss met Tas Damen, co-founder and CIO, while working at a former employer and both soon realized they had similar outlooks on life, she said. "We were trying to figure out what we could do together as a social enterprise that would help people." For both women, it seemed a natural fit to start helping older Canadians and to give back to the community, said Joaniss. "I've always helped seniors, like when I lived in Italy and Ottawa. I moved abroad for a few years and I worked for an NGO and I was helping several seniors at the NGO that I worked at and also at the school that I worked at." "It's second nature, I think, to both of us," she said. Valuable experience e official launch of the network is taking place on Nov. 22, with sponsorship from Facebook and MC2, a Montre- al-based content creation company. Connected has also heard from three Ottawa-area IT firms that want to partner with the organization, along with a group from Carleton University, said Joaniss. e organization offers various programs that enable volunteers to train seniors on such topics as setting up email, how to use video-chat programs and communicating by text using a cellphone. ey offer one-on-one training sessions and instructor-led workshops. "We're trying to create content so they can go from very beginners — how do you connect over cellular versus Wi-Fi — to being a bit more advanced. (Say) you want to share all the documents and pictures to sophisticated apps, how do you use Google Cloud versus iCloud and what are the differences from that standpoint?" said Damen. e instructors visit retirement residences, usually on Saturday mornings, and spend about 45 minutes discussing a particular topic, she said. "We will pair those general volunteers with seniors for one-on-one advice for about an hour, and the seniors will be able to meet up with that person again, if they want to, for further coaching and tutoring." And the workers who get involved can use their employer-sponsored volunteer time, said Joaniss. "A lot of employers have volunteer-sponsored hours anyway, which people don't typically use; most people have about two days per year of hours and this allows employees (to use) those hours," she said. "ey can actually make a really valuable contribution to a senior's Ottawa-based volunteer program pairs tech workers with seniors 'ey can make a valuable contribution to a senior's life and show them how to communicate with family' Sign up for the Canadian HR Newswire today for free and enjoy great content from the publishers of Canadian HR Reporter. HR News at Your Fingertips THE LATEST NEWS THE BEST COMMENTARY DELIVERED WEEKLY FOR READING ON ANY DEVICE Visit www.hrreporter.com/ canadian-hr-newswire BY JOHN DUJAY

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