Fun, friendly and free help with your laptops, smartphones and tablets
Picture below of some of our members practising their new skills at the Five Bells Pub, Oct 2022.
Every Tuesday
2 - 4pm
Our friendly volunteers offer free help with your laptops, smartphones and tablets.
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Since 2016
The club was started in 2016 as an EFAB (East Finchley Alltogether Better) neighbourhood initiative to combat loneliness in the London Borough of Barnet - neighbours getting to know neighbours with a common interest. We began in a sheltered housing complex, but soon grew too big for their common room, and moved to the Five Bells pub nearby in East End Road, N2. During lockdown we ran our sessions on Zoom, and our friendly volunteers helped many of our elderly members set up Zoom for the first time with one-to-one telephone calls between our weekly sessions. We send out a newsletter every Tuesday morning with a reminder that the club is happening in the afternoon. We were based at Alexandra Palace after lockdown, where there’s plenty of room for social distancing. We have been back at the Five Bells Pub since September 2022.
How it works!
Our members turn up with their devices, let us know what they’d like help with, and are matched with a suitable helper with the relevant skills. Everybody has different gaps in their knowledge and is helped in a way that they can understand. On busy days, there may be a wait for a suitable helper, but refreshments are available, and it’s a good time to socialise with the other members. (Pictures of one of our original sessions at the Five Bells Pub).
Lottery Funding
For our first six years we managed to survive on the goodwill of our hosting venues, and donations from happy members. We were delighted to be awarded some lottery funding in October 2022 and 2023. This has enabled us to pay for our internet access, printed flyers, refreshments etc and generally upgrade the group.
Our YouTube Channel
During lockdown, we continued to run the club on Zoom. This video by our volunteer helper Lynn, shows the sorts of things we got up to in a typical online session during Covid. She shows us an overview about how to start an Instagram account on a mobile phone. Then, during the session, we split ourselves into Android and iPhone groups (in breakout rooms), and went through everything step-by-step until everyone was set up and raring to go! We recorded the Zoom session and it’s on our YouTube Channel. We were intending to make lots of videos about common topics which crop up at club, but somehow never found the time to add many more!
Join our Club!
We meet every Tuesday between 2pm and 4pm during term time. We offer free help with your smartphones, tablets and laptops (and desktops via Zoom!), and you are welcome to join us just for a chat! Subscribe to our eMail list (by clicking the ‘sign-up’ button further down this page) to receive our weekly eMail newsletter and the reminder to join us at our friendly
face-to-face meetings - details are given each week in the newsletter.
(We will not pass your contact information to anyone else).
Hope to see you at one of our club sessions soon.
Looking forward to meeting you,
Toni & The Team
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Our GDPR policy and procedures
Learners are reminded that the Club is run by volunteers, giving their time freely and with every intention of helping them to the best of their ability and knowledge. The Club cannot be held responsible for any damage, loss, costs or expenses arising from learners using any of our resources, either online or in-person.
© 2024 Tea and Tech Club CIC (Five Bells Computer Club)
