Flagship Municipal Proof
Digital confidence, delivered in the community.
Bridging Technologies ATL partnered with the City of South Fulton Parks & Recreation Department to deliver a structured senior digital-confidence pilot built around practical skills, patient instruction, digital safety, and measurable reporting.
Why this work is personal
Challenge
Older residents were being asked to use city services, healthcare portals, banking, and communication tools that nobody had taught them to use. Access was rarely the barrier — most had a device. Confidence was.
The department wanted something more durable than a one-off workshop: a structured program with a real curriculum, delivered in the community, that could be reported on afterwards.
Partner and setting
Bridging Technologies ATL partnered with the City of South Fulton Parks & Recreation Department, delivering the program in community facilities residents already used and trusted.
Using an existing community venue mattered. Recruitment ran through channels residents recognized, and attending did not require anyone to travel somewhere unfamiliar to admit they needed help.
Program design
Two community cohorts, structured around practical digital life skills rather than abstract computer literacy: smartphone use, email, video calls, online safety, apps, and city services.
Participants worked on their own devices throughout. That is a deliberate design choice — a skill practiced on a borrowed demonstration phone does not survive contact with your own.
Scam awareness was woven through every topic rather than delivered as a single frightening session at the end.
Participant experience
Sessions were paced to the group, with time to repeat things and ask the question again without embarrassment. Patient instruction is the method, not a nicety.
Participants received plain-language materials to keep, so a skill covered in one session could be revisited at home.
Measurement method
Two instruments were used, and they measure different things.
A self-assessment asked participants to rate their own confidence across seven skills before and after the program. This captures how capable someone feels — which matters, because confidence is what determines whether a person actually attempts a task.
A knowledge assessment scored objective understanding out of 12, administered before and after.
A final survey captured program rating and whether participants would recommend it. Twenty participants responded to the final survey.
All instruments were internal to the pilot. They were not externally validated, and the pilot had no control group — so nothing here isolates the program as the cause of any change.
Results
Reported exactly as measured, including the measure that did not move.
3.34 → 4.21/5
average self-reported confidence across seven assessed skills
Evidence type: Self-reported
Participants rated their own confidence before and after the program. This is a self-report measure, not an objective test of competence.
Source: City of South Fulton pilot internal assessments, 2026
4.95/5
participant program rating
Evidence type: Self-reported
Participant satisfaction rating from the final survey.
Source: City of South Fulton pilot final survey, 2026
100%
of 20 final-survey respondents said they would recommend the program
Evidence type: Self-reported
Based on 20 final-survey respondents. Respondents are those who completed the final survey, not necessarily every participant.
Source: City of South Fulton pilot final survey, 2026
11.95 → 11.95/12
objective knowledge score, unchanged before and after
Evidence type: Objective measure
The knowledge score did not increase. It began near the maximum, which is consistent with a ceiling effect: the instrument had little room to detect improvement. No knowledge gain is claimed.
Source: City of South Fulton pilot internal assessments, 2026
2 cohorts
delivered with the City of South Fulton Parks & Recreation Department
Evidence type: Program delivery
Source: Bridging Technologies ATL program records, 2026
Source note: City of South Fulton pilot internal assessments and final survey, 2026. Confidence figures reflect self-reported confidence; they are not an objective knowledge-score claim. Assessments were internal and not externally validated, and the pilot had no control group.
How to read these numbers
Self-reported confidence rose meaningfully, from 3.34 to 4.21 out of 5. Participants rated the program 4.95 out of 5, and all twenty final-survey respondents said they would recommend it. Those are participation and satisfaction findings, and they are real.
What this pilot does and does not show
- It shows that a structured program was delivered to two cohorts and was rated highly by the participants who completed the final survey.
- It shows a substantial improvement in how confident participants felt across seven skills.
- It does not show a measured increase in objective knowledge.
- It does not show a causal effect. There was no control group, so improvement cannot be attributed to the program alone.
- It does not show a change in scam losses, financial outcomes, or service use. None of that was measured.
Lessons learned
- The knowledge instrument needs replacing. A test that starts at 11.95 out of 12 cannot demonstrate learning. A harder, better-calibrated assessment is the single most important change for the next cycle.
- Own devices, every time. Practicing on a personal phone is what makes a skill survive the walk home.
- The venue does the recruiting. Running inside a trusted community facility reached people who would not have enrolled in a technology class elsewhere.
- Continuation is the gap. Confidence built over a few weeks needs somewhere to go afterwards — which is precisely what continued access and Ask Chet are designed to provide.
Next-phase opportunity
A next phase would keep the delivery model and fix the measurement: a calibrated knowledge instrument, a follow-up at a set interval to test whether confidence holds, and clearer separation between participation, satisfaction, and capability.
Any future phase, expansion or continuation would be agreed with the City. Nothing on this page should be read as an announcement of one.
Bring a structured program to your community.
If you are considering something similar, the most useful conversation starts with your population and what you would need to see to call it worthwhile.