Digital mentors help people to feel confident and safe online. They support communities to learn digital skills and are at the heart of community led digital inclusion programs.
The Capacity Building program is a train-the-trainer initiative to support and develop digital mentors in local communities across Australia. The initiatives has been running successfully for many years to increase capacity within the Be Connected program.
New in 2025 was the introduction of a specialised Young Digital Mentor Capacity Builders round, focused on inspiring skilled, passionate and friendly 16 to 21 years old digital mentors to help more older people be connected.
We know that intergenerational digital inclusion initiatives can have a fantastic positive impact on both the older learners and younger mentors, creating opportunities for knowledge exchange, personal growth and professional skills development. Eight organisations were accepted in to this program in the first round.
One of the organisations participating in this round is Collective Leisure, who are working with local partners to train young mentors in their community.
Watch part 1 of their story to see their digital mentor training in action, and why it is important to their community.
Video transcript
I think it’s important to help people. I’m helping my dad every day cos he he doesn’t speak English and he would get lost. So, I teach him how to book appointments, show him how to use Google Maps, and make sure he feels safe online.
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Most of the senior generation have come with zero English without technology in digital life. In Afghanistan, they were not using Google map. They were not receiving emails. They were not using touchscreens. Over here, it’s another word. They should know it.
I want to help older people because at home, I have my mom and dad and also my younger siblings. So, I want to kind of act as someone who can help them out in uh whatever they need. Both my mom and dad, they still struggle with technology and social media.
So, I help them with online banking. social media, writing and sending emails.
When we train them, that that means we train our community, we train our future. So I do definitely see the need of the digital life skills within the multicultural community and I think everyone will appreciate you for doing that.
We’ll train 100 mentors until March of next year. So far we have completed more than half of this training for the young mentors.
Since I am here in Australia, I can feel that we are nothing without technology. Online banking plus Medicare plus centrelink. These are the simple and basic things for the seniors. They need to know.
From this training, I learned that one of the biggest qualities of a digital mentor is patience. You have to be patient and in order for someone to learn or understand you, you have to be patient and support them in the best way.
Older generation can learn from the younger generation today’s technology in digital life. But the younger generation can learn from the older generation of their identity, how do how to hold their identity, how to proud who they are. If they are loyal to what identity they had from their elders, they will be loyal to Australia where they live now.
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The Capacity Building grant and training program is created by Good Things through the Be Connected program. Find out more.