Ann White jokes that when she first started asking Denver city officials to open a technology center for Montbello seniors, her hair was still black.
Almost a decade later, with a full head of white hair, she stood in front of a packed room of senior citizens, triumphant.
“Can you imagine nine years doing this?” White, 82, told Denverite. “And then here we are, October the 3rd, and we have a ribbon cutting today.”
Located inside the Arie P. Taylor Municipal Center in northeast Denver, the center is no larger than your typical conference room. Inside, there are a couple dozen seats, tables, laptops and a projector.
It’s simple, intended to teach the bare necessities of technology — nobody here will be mining cryptocurrency or climbing the Twitch streaming ratings anytime soon.
Seniors who attended the launch of Montbello’s new Senior Technology Center said they’ve felt left behind by the quick advancements in technology. Even Joni Caldwell, a 71-year-old former computer engineer, said it's been hard to keep up with new technology after she retired.
“Things have really, really, really changed and everything is almost instantaneous now if you know what you're doing,” Caldwell said. “And oftentimes I get hung up in all the extra steps and I'm not understanding how to get to the end product that I'm looking for.”
A 2023 survey from the Pew Research Center found that senior citizens lag significantly behind younger Americans in adopting technology. Fewer than half of adults over 65 have broadband access at home, and about 40 percent don’t use the internet at all.
The technology center’s breakthrough happened in May, when Montbello’s two city councilmembers, Stacie Gilmore and Shontel Lewis, met with the neighborhood’s senior community to discuss the need for such a gathering space.
The new center will help seniors adapt to changing times
White said that everything these days demands the use of technology — banking, health care, media, even making reservations at restaurants. For seniors, that can be a barrier.
Advocates said opening the new technology center will help seniors “age in place,” a common concept in geriatric care that means allowing seniors to live in their own home and community as long as possible. The center’s curriculum may help seniors stay self-sufficient, instead of relying on other people to help them navigate technological issues.
Housed in Denver’s Department of Economic Development & Opportunity, the center will offer training such as digital literacy, smartphone demos, and introductions to social media. The center uses existing staff, space and federal funding.
“[Technology] frightens a lot of folks,” said Larry Murray, president of the Golden Age Club of Montbello. “So the idea is, first off, you have to remove that fear. This room right here is the beginning of that.”
While the center has quite literally just opened, White is already dreaming big about its future.
She had initially asked to place the center in a nearby building that Denver police were moving out of, but that building was contaminated with asbestos. She and others still have their eyes on it, though, hoping for an expansion of the new senior tech center.
For now, White and other senior citizens were content to celebrate their victory. During Thursday’s ribbon cutting, there was barely enough room to stand.
“This is an example of the need for our seniors,” she said. “So let's get that space ready down there. We need to expand.”
White sees elder care as a two-way street. Though seniors have fallen behind on technology, they’re still more than capable of teaching their younger counterparts about the world.
If and when the Montbello Senior Technology Center expands, White hopes to open an innovation lab, where seniors can teach children manual skills, like knitting and clothes repair, and children can teach seniors about technology.
