We want to thank everyone who nominated people for our 2021 Boomer Impact Awards. The takeaway after reading your nominations? Our region is fortunate to have many creative and innovative people making a positive impact in the lives of those 50 and older.
As we whittled the list down, we were mindful that the dominant issue of our time — the pandemic — affected and continues to impact older adults more than any other segment of our population. It made sense that our winner was motivated to act because of the pandemic and its awful, isolating consequences.
We hope you enjoy reading about our 2021 Boomer Impact Award winner and his patient, unflappable team of tech gurus who have done so much good to offset the isolating consequences of COVID-19.
Tom Hlavin isn’t a tech guy. He makes that clear the first time you meet him.
Hlavin’s background and strength are in sales, not tech. But he’d have a tough time selling that narrative to the hundreds of Northeast Ohio’s older adults who are mastering technology — many for the first time — thanks to Tom and his team at Simply Virtual.
Our 2021 Boomer Impact Award winner, Hlavin is a product of the pandemic. The tablets and knowledge that he’s put into the hands of seniors have made a huge difference in their lives. They’re ordering groceries, video chatting with family and friends, downloading apps, streaming shows and managing passwords… all with the help of Hlavin’s nonprofit, Simply Virtual, and his three-member team.
Problem Solver
Just over a year ago, Hlavin, 63, the former senior community relations manager
At Oak Street Health, saw how the pandemic had isolated older adults, especially those without the resources to buy devices to stay connected. Living in near-isolation while a pandemic raged around them, the world for many older adults got smaller and smaller as COVID-19 spread.
In Hlavin’s former job — Oak Street Health provides medical care to Medicare patients and adults over 65 — many older adults, especially those with limited income, were at the sidelines of the technology game as the world pivoted to life online.
Like a lot of problems, the solution seemed deceptively simple. If people had tablets, they could stay connected. Hlavin clicked open his Amazon account, took $15,000 of his own money and bought 150 Fire tablets, the cheapest he could find. With help from the staff at Barton Senior Center in Lakewood, the tablets got into the hands of residents in The Westerly Apartments, which shares the building with the senior center. The apartments provide affordable senior living housing for 453 residents.
Simply Virtual was formed in October 2020. Two months later, in December, Hlavin’s then-director Cheryl Shaver (now a grant writer for Simply Virtual) told residents that they could get free tablets. As Hlavin remembers, “Four people signed up, the four turned into eight, turned into 16, turned into 32.”
While demand exploded, it revealed a few glitches. The senior center on the ground floor of the complex has the internet, but most residents don’t. So Hlavin brought in wi-fi hotspots that allowed residents to use their tablets in their apartments.
But tablets and hotspots weren’t enough to get everyone on board. Hlavin and his team found that shaky fingers and arthritis made it difficult for people to use their tablets, so he bought styluses. The tablets needed covers to protect the screens, and phone stands for virtual visits. Eventually, Hlavin put together all the equipment in red bags that he and his team distribute with the tablets.
Still, owning a tablet and having an internet connection are one thing. Knowing how to use them is another. Hlavin organized help-desk events at the complex each week to work out the usual glitches that come with mastering technology: passwords, apps, video visits, online shopping.
Hlavin hired three people to work on the help desks and manage day-to-day duties: Sandy Deida, Heidi Lamb and Elaine Morales. They formed a companionable team armed with buckets of patience and enough knowledge to get older adults comfortable with the tech tools from Simply Virtual.
With the three staff members working one-on-one with older adults, Hlavin put on his sales hat, forging partnerships and gaining support from the Cleveland Foundation, T-Mobile, Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging, Three Arches Foundation and others. With the T-Mobile partnership and its offer to provide deeply discounted devices, Simply Virtual pivoted to the company’s Moxee tablets, a budget- and user-friendly option for the nonprofit’s clients.
The organization has placed tablets in Fedor Manor Apartments, among other places, and offers help desks at senior communities throughout Greater Cleveland. The organization recently secured a pilot program with the City of Cleveland to provide 50 tablets at the Mercedarian Plaza Senior Apartments. Discussions are ongoing with additional companies to co-sponsor help desks and underwrite the cost of equipment.
This year, Hlavin cobbled together grants for a $100,000 budget. That will balloon to an estimated $300,000 in 2022, with expansions planned for several underserved older adult communities and hundreds more tablets going out to those who need them.
Why It Works
Hlavin says the key to Simply Virtual is Deida, Lamb and Morales, who bring both knowledge and enthusiasm to their work. Another important component is going to the places where older adults live to help with initial setups and troubleshoot the technology. Transportation can be challenging; finding help just an elevator ride away to an apartment lobby makes technology vitally accessible.
“What we’ve found working with seniors, the key takeaway is it’s one on one. (We’re) not going to be able to talk them through a fix over the phone as simply as we try to explain it in person,” Hlavin says. The in-house help desks keep everyone connected, both tech-wise and socially. One recent day in the Barton Senior Center, a steady stream of residents carrying smartphones and tablets met one-on-one with a Simply Virtual team member.
The reasons that bring folks to the help desks are varied. One resident needed to sign a document electronically, another to open a Facebook account. A woman requested a tablet so she could video chat with her sister who has Alzheimer’s. Accessing music is popular with many residents. And a lot of them want to use Alexa, the virtual assistant technology, Deida says.
The visits seem as much tech-driven as socially-driven. Some just want to talk, she adds.
Anyone who has helped an older friend or family member with their smartphone or tablet knows it can be a frustrating experience. Deida, Lamb and Morales say that’s not an issue. “We thank them for their patience,” Lamb says. Sometimes, residents have to wait for their time with one of the workers.
Marilyn Zipp, who lives at The Westerly Apartments, was at the help desk recently to figure out her smartphone. “I am slow in catching on, but they’re really good. My daughter got me a phone with all the whistles and bells but they forget that I’m still just Nana,” she says.
Kathy Oliver lives at Knickerbocker Apartments in Bay Village and got a tablet through Simply Virtual. “I use it every day because I play games on it and get my emails on it.” Hlavin understands it’s easy for folks to feel uncomfortable with technology. That’s why it’s so satisfying to see them embrace it.
“When technology was going so fast, a lot of people, even my age, said they couldn’t keep up,” Hlavin says. “I just kept going, and by keeping going I kept up with the technology. So then I, in turn, was able to help others. It’s all about keeping up. We don’t have to be tech gurus because, frankly, anything we say is fresh and new to these folks.”
Ethan Krasnow is Barton’s director. “There was a lot of isolation through the pandemic and they weren’t able to talk to their family or friends,” she says of the seniors. “This was a way for them to stay connected. It’s been really meaningful. The people really love him. Since the tablets arrived, we see a lot of people we didn’t normally see.”
Donn Heckelmoser is president/CEO of the Barton Center and the LSC Service Corporation, which manages affordable housing for older adults throughout Northeast Ohio. “Tom and his team have been fantastic,” he says. After the tablets arrived and a few help desk sessions, “two weeks later, (residents) are ordering groceries online.”
Says Hlavin, “None of us are IT professionals, but one of the things you need in this job is patience and a sense of empathy and humor. I really started the non-profit to fill a need, but it’s turned into lots of fun working with the seniors. We get more out of this outreach than our clients.”
