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Senior Health Foundation (SHF) is an Omaha-based, nonprofit organization that is part of the Midwest Geriatrics healthcare family which also includes Florence Home Healthcare Center, Florence Home Assisted Living, Royale Oaks Assisted Living, House of Hope Alzheimer's Care, Transitions Day Program, and Gerimed/Unimed Pharmacies. SHF’s role as part of Midwest Geriatrics is two-fold; First, we provide fundraising services for our sister organizations, and second, we offer senior-focused computer education for the residents in our facilities and for thousands of seniors in the Omaha, Lincoln, and Fremont area.
SHF began developing senior specific computer education classes in 1994. That year, two of our staff members started their Masters Degree programs in Computers in Education, and over the next two years focused their studies on senior computer learning needs. This work fueled SHF’s computer education program and the first set of senior specific Basic computer classes were offered. During the next 12 years over 10,000 senior students were taught in SHF classrooms, allowing the staff to build a wealth of expertise and experience from which to draw senior educational methodologies and develop senior specific computer classes and materials.
 Currently, SHF offers senior computer classes at four locations; at its main computer lab in the Florence Home Healthcare Center, at the Immanuel Health System AgeWell computer lab near Immanuel Hospital, at the Club Landing Computer Education Center in Lincoln, and on the campus of Metropolitan Community College in Fremont. Our senior class offerings include over 30 classes covering more than 16 different computer topics, ranging from very basic computer and Internet courses to the more advanced and adventurous Digital Imaging, Creative Word Processing, and eBay classes.
All of the classes we offer were developed and are taught by our own professional staff that specializes in senior learning. Classes are paced at a senior friendly rate and class scope and sequence methodology includes a large amount of repetition to reinforce the most important subject matter and promote learning retention.
The goal of our senior-focused program is to help bring the senior population gently into the age of computer technology. It’s certainly true that seniors can benefit from computer technology as much and in the same ways as any other age group. But as an added benefit, learning to use computers to communicate, gain knowledge, and have fun helps the older population bridge the technology generation gap and gain a new sense of confidence and self-worth.
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