Tech Buddies: We Have Solutions. We Need the Will to Use Them.

By Medha Lalani and Reshma Lalani, Co-Founders of Tech Buddies

Our grandparents were the first people who showed us the problem. They struggled with things we had never thought twice about, like sending a text, joining a video call, or figuring out why an app suddenly looked different. We realized quickly that this was not a personal failing. It was a design problem, and they were far from alone.

In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where we live, 20.5% of residents are 65 or older. Globally, roughly one in ten people are. Technology is moving faster every year, and older adults are being asked to keep up without anyone offering to teach them. That gap has real consequences: missed telehealth appointments, isolation from family, and vulnerability to scams that are getting more sophisticated by the month.

So we started Tech Buddies, a youth-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit that pairs tech savvy high school students with older adults for free, patient, one on one, in person help. There is no rushed help desk and no one time workshop. Seniors bring their own questions, and a student sits beside them and works through it at their pace.

Since then, Tech Buddies has reached more than 7,000 older adults, mobilized over 300 student volunteers, and grown to 66 chapters across 11 U.S. states and 21 countries. We partner with retirement communities, senior centers, and recreation centers, and we host community wide events. At a recent one, 30 older adults and 30 students sat down together for an afternoon.

Our favorite moment so far involved a 101 year old woman who came to a session wanting to learn her flip phone. With help from a student volunteer, she placed her first phone call to her daughter. That is what this work actually looks like.

But direct service alone will not close the digital divide. That is why we also advocate. We have engaged Pennsylvania State Representative Nikki Rivera, Senator Scott Martin's office, the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, and Governor Shapiro's Next Generation Engagement Commission. We also met jointly with the House Aging & Older Services Committee Majority Chair - Rep. Maureen Madden & House Aging & Older Services Committee Minority Chair - Rep. Steve Mentzer to discuss digital inclusion for older adults.

We firmly believe that it is not a partisan issue and should never be treated like one. Our ask is straightforward: legislation funding $2,000 micro grants so schools, libraries, and senior centers can launch student led tech programs of their own. The model works and it costs very little. We have solutions. We need the political will to implement them.

A Tech Buddies partnership with Gray Panthers NYC brings those two halves together. Your work challenging ageism, and your leadership as co-chair of the Stakeholder Group on Ageing, treats older adults as people with a voice rather than a population to be managed. We believe digital exclusion belongs in that conversation, at every level from Harrisburg to the United Nations.

We are excited to begin working together, including exploring how becoming a Tech Buddy could count toward the Age and Youth in Action Girl Scout patch.

As members of Gen Z, technology has been part of our lives from the start. We do not think that is a privilege to take for granted. It is a skill we owe to a generation that built the world we grew up in.

Learn more at techbuddiesprogram.com

---

Please consider making a donation to support our mission. Visit - https://www.techbuddiesprogram.com/support

Tech Buddies is a IRS-approved 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our EIN is 42-1831191. All donations are tax deductible.