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Case studies Luciane gets online A young mum from Peterborough is finding her feet on the internet, thanks to Get online day at Peterborough Women’s UK online centre. Luciane Jones, 18, from Fletton in Peterborough, recently got married and has a five and a half month old baby. She went along to Peterborough Women’s Centre – a UK online centre - for the first time on Get online day. She says: “I decided to go along to the Get online day event after getting a leaflet through the door. I thought it looked quite interesting, and it was a chance for me and my baby, Dylan, to get out of the house. There was a creche at the centre and it was the first time I’d left him with someone other than my mum! “The centre was running different workshops where you could make your own scrapbook and learn how to Blue Tooth photos from your phone onto a computer. I felt a bit nervous when I arrived but the centre staff were really friendly – especially Ashley. They showed us how to get onto the web and how to set up a family tree, using pictures we scanned into the computer. “I had some pictures of when Dylan was born and photos from my wedding at Peterborough Registry Office, and we put them into the family tree. The centre printed it off for me and sent me a copy by email, which was great! I’d used computers a bit at school and at home, but I’d never done anything like that before – it was really good fun!” Luciane spent hours at Peterborough Women’s Centre on Get online day and she met some new friends while she was there. She comments: “I got there at 10am and didn’t leave till around 4.30pm! It was a really good day. I met loads of new people and I was chatting to everyone. I’m going to start going as often as I can to the Mother and Baby sessions they run, and I really want to find out more about other courses on offer.” Luciane is dyslexic and hopes that computers and the internet will help improve her reading and writing skills. “I’m interested in learning about numeracy and literacy, and Ashley told me about these online courses they do. Because I’ve got dyslexia they can change the colours and fonts for me, and I can use headphones if I need extra help. I think going along to the centre will benefit me in so many ways, not just my reading and writing. For example, I think it will help me with life in the future, especially now I’ve got a baby. That’s one of the main reasons I want to do the numeracy course - so I can help Dylan with his homework when he goes to school. I don’t want him to come home from school one day and say, ‘mummy mummy what does this mean?’ and I don’t know how to help him. Maths might never have been my strong point, but I don’t want that to hold Dylan back.” Since going to Peterborough Women’s Centre on Get online day, Luciane has started to see how using the internet can make a difference to other areas of her life too. “My mum uses the internet a lot for online banking and all sorts of other things, she says it’s really easy! I obviously knew you could do online banking before I went to the centre but I wasn’t aware that you could do things like sort out your TV licence, benefits and council tax. And I certainly wasn’t convinced it would be as easy as my mum reckons! I think it’s like everything, once someone shows you how, you’re off. Everything’s easy when you know how! “I’m really glad I took part in Get online day and I think it was a really positive event. Now I’d encourage other people who aren’t sure about the web to go to their nearest UK online centre and check it out. You’ve got nothing to lose, and potentially loads to gain.”
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