A COFFS Harbour-founded social enterprise called Youngster.co pairs young people with seniors for free technology help, bringing to life a brilliant idea that couldn’t be better timed.
The innovative program has been chosen as a finalist in two categories, including the Inclusion Award, at the NSW Business Awards, which will be announced on the evening of Friday, 18 September.
The program came to life at the innovation Hub Coffs Coast project by addressing youth mental health in regional NSW.
Since then, it has created more than 15,000 intergenerational connections in just three years, as a response to the challenges social media and AI companies have fuelled with technologies that can isolate as easily as they connect.
Youngster.co was co-founded by Tony Rothacker and his son Finn, a father-and-son team taking off in 2022 building a platform seeking to bridge the generational divide in mutually beneficials ways.
“We built a platform that lets us match vetted local youngsters with seniors and scale the programme across Australia,” Tony Rothacker told News Of The Area.
“We are using technology and AI in a positive way to benefit basic human needs, proving that technology can be a servant, not a master.”
At the heart of the Inclusion Award nomination is the simple belief that seniors are a real asset, not a burden, with life experience and wisdom that no classroom can teach.
Every session gives them a chance to leave a legacy, passing on patience, empathy and life skills to the next generation.
Often the “sandwich generation”, juggling ageing parents and a teenager at home, is able to connect the two groups.
Coffs Harbour City Council has been an early supporter, and Youngster.co hopes to expand across the wider Coffs Harbour area, alongside youth organisations, job agencies, retirement villages and home care providers, through libraries, neighbourhood and shopping centres via public-private partnerships.
For seniors, the impact is personal and strikes them as a profound opportunity to both give and receive.
“Sitting down one-on-one with somebody who is doing nothing else but addressing your needs and listening to you, and getting them all fixed up is wonderful,” said Marie, a senior who participated in the program after her session.
By Kim SATCHELL
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
