Westgate TV Channel – Staying Connected

Westgate Foundation Digital TV – ‘Staying Connected’ Project
Westgate Foundation has now  rolled out a new project  called Staying Connected and it is centered around connecting with
our clients, members ,residents and service users through delivering live streamed and recorded
programmes from Westgate that people can access at home.
Just before Christmas 2021 we received funding through Comic Relief to partner with Cork
Community Media Hub to train some of our staff team in Westgate to produce and film
in-house programmes and we also received funding to purchase some IT devices (laptops,
tablets and phones) that we can loan out to our clients and members at home. We are
also partnering with Age Action Ireland who can provide over the phone training to
people at home in getting connected and learning to use their IT devices.
We invited a pilot group of residents, members and clients to
participate in the project over 6 weeks which commenced on the week beginning April 13 th . Over
the course of that 6 weeks they were offered the opportunity to connect with Age Action’s
training programme and also to connect into two live or recorded broadcasts per week
from Westgate Foundation. They  included craft demonstrations, talks on items of
interest, music performances , social chat get togethers and a range of other programmes
that you think would be of interest. They had also the opportunity to join in our choir,
art, drama and movement/exercise classes through zoom.
Throughout the six weeks we they were invited to give us feedback on their experience of
the programme, including any difficulties they were experiencing with the IT side of things,
the content of the programmes themselves and any suggestions that they had on how we
can make the programmes more interesting and also their feedback on the quality of the
programmes in terms of sound, lighting etc.,.
We had excellent feedback and we used the feedback to improve the programme and then launched the  programme in June and to offered it to the wider group of our clients, members,
residents and service users. We know how lonely it is for so many people being confined to home all day
and we are hoping that this project is a way of easing that loneliness by creating an
opportunity to see familiar faces and to participate in enjoyable activities.
We would be delighted if you would be interested in participating in the rental scheme and this programme.
If you are interested please ring 021-4873648 and we will follow up with
a phone call to you over the coming week to explain the details of the project further.

Westgate Foundation ‘Staying Connected’ Project Team’