New York City-based Visions Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired has moved some of its senior center classes to a telephone format. One group began with a health management theme, and the plan was to discuss health issues, including meal options. Enter the Get Food NYC program, which delivers boxes of food to city residents. Those boxes often contain much more than the seniors can use in one week, so the group has moved into recipe exchanges and creative ways to use the surplus they receive. Diana Cruz, director of the senior center, noted that the groups are using Google Hangouts for their meetings. Why not Zoom? Cruz said that the seniors take time to put in their meeting IDs and Zoom has a cutoff time. Google Hangouts – no timeout. Learn about it here.
Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Philadelphia has a storytelling group facilitated by a former teacher. Initial sessions for this group cover the history of storytelling. Similar to the Moth storytelling on public radio, group members are then assisted to craft their own story, either true to life or fictional, to share with the group, although those who want to participate as listeners are welcomed, too. Now that the group has moved to Zoom, ASB is getting requests to join from people all over the country.
