SafeGuard Seniors has now run 16 workshops and taught 232 seniors — a combination of their original scam awareness workshop and a newer AI literacy workshop — at facilities in Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, and Norwalk.
Along the way, teens have helped protect seniors from scams and gotten them excited about new inventions AI is making possible.
“Safeguard Seniors is not only an idea inspired by the community’s needs, but it is also personally connected to us,” said Charlie Miller and Reese Robison, founders of SafeGuard Seniors.
“My grandmother received a threatening phone call, asking for her personal information by deception. When she told me about it, I realized just how much scams affect and target the elderly, and decided to do something about it,” Miller said. “I brought this issue up to my friend Reese, who had a similar experience, and we began to work together to try and prevent this from happening again.”
“We realized that the elderly were becoming the main target for scams due to the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence making the scams more convincing,” Miller added. “Our first goal was to educate older adults against scams and teach them about the rise of artificial intelligence. To achieve this, we provide 30-minute workshops at senior facilities to give them the knowledge and confidence to use their technology safely.”
Miller said as he and Robison went from place to place, they had the opportunity to talk with Mary Tate, volunteer coordinator at the Nathaniel Witherell in Greenwich, who suggested that Witherell residents would appreciate a workshop on AI and the new wave of inventions.
A new workshop was created not only to explain AI, but to also give real examples of how it’s changing the world.
“We explain artificial intelligence in simple terms and show them new inventions powered by AI. We highlight the Jetson’s cartoons (which most elders have seen) and show how their futuristic inventions exist today,” he added. “We realized that artificial intelligence can seem overwhelming because it is a new and powerful technology, but it does not have to be scary. We love helping our community and are proud to report that we have hosted 16 workshops and reached over 230 seniors in Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk and Darien. We want to make a larger impact so we are now rolling out an ambassador program to recruit other teens to lead SafeGuard Seniors workshops in their communities.”
Another great idea that was suggested during one of their presentations was to help educate the youth in under-served communities on AI.
Miller and Robison are currently putting together a workshop on how younger students can use AI safely and responsibly.
Miller said no matter the age, everyone should be equipped with the knowledge and skills to understand AI.
“We hope to make a difference,” Miller and Robison said.
More information is available online about SafeGuard Seniors.