The project, designed by the Harrow Youth Offending Team (YOT), invites youngsters to pass on their computer skills to seniors who want to learn the basics of the internet and email technology.
Devised originally to provide young people who have offended reparation opportunities, the course is structured over six weeks and uses a self-contained, interactive BBC internet learning package. This teaches the senior client how to sit safely at a computer, basic searching, email composition and security.
Nick Sloan, reparation project officer at the YOT said, "This project gives some of the most vulnerable young people in our community an opportunity to say 'sorry' by passing on their skills to another often overlooked and vulnerable group of people who are eager to learn and preserve their own independence.
"By sitting young and old down together in a neutral venue at a computer we also see much more than just PC skills being transferred; experience itself gets shared and age barriers can be broken down within a safe, supervised environment."
Sloan is currently looking for corporate partners to help augment the service but he's quick to point out that "the real beauty of Double-Klik is that we use existing resources to provide an innovative service for two sets of clients with different needs simultaneously, helping to keep council costs down".
