The Melrose Messenger

SDM Foundation Celebrates 8 Years of Technology Education on Main Street

This month will mark 8 years since SDM Foundation opened its doors on Main Street. In that time, they have provided thousands of hours of free technology lessons for people in Melrose and beyond.

SDM Foundation provides free one-on-one technology help sessions to anyone who requests an appointment. Lessons can be about skills as basic as setting up a personal email account or as complex as creating a website for a business.

Kristin Thorp set up SDM Foundation from the estate of Stuart Donald McIntosh (SDM) in 2016. Thorp and McIntosh worked together at his software company for 30 years prior to his death in 2015. As part of their work together, they decided that the best way to honor his legacy would be to create a foundation that would help people of all skill levels to learn to use technology.

Thorp, a longtime Melrose resident, first opened SDM Foundation on Main Street, in the space that currently houses Colette Bakery. She began with 3 employees, and expanded over the years, moving to their current space 3 years ago. They initially experimented with different formats of lessons but settled on their current model of one-on-one lessons, finding it to be the most efficient way to meet clients’ needs and address different learning speeds and styles.

SDM Foundation is unique, Thorp explains, because while some companies offer technological assistance, she has never encountered any others that provide lessons for free. SDM Foundation provided over 4,000 hours of lessons last year to a range of clients: many are seniors who are learning to use new technology; others are job hunters who need help formatting resumes or filling out online applications; still others are small business owners establishing their business’ online presence. While SDM Foundation does not help clients with hardware repairs or with content - what to put in a resume or what website design to use - they are willing to help clients learn to use almost any program or complete any task. “And if we don’t know something,” Thorp says, “we’ll sit and work through it with you.”

While SDM Foundation is now well established, Thorp shares that they are always open to trying new things. Scaling up their model isn’t likely to happen anytime soon, but Thorp says they continue to look for ways to expand their reach and help more people. They have also recently begun accepting donations and applying for grants, with the goal of being able to stretch their endowment further into the future and continue helping people for years to come.

SDM Foundation does more than just provide tech support: they impact people’s lives in important ways. They help clients figure out how to FaceTime with relatives. They help people avoid scams and help those who have been scammed to recover. And Thorp describes one especially emotional moment when a client came in asking for help accessing a Zoom link for her granddaughter’s graduation and was able to watch the livestream at SDM Foundation. The client shared afterward that, without their help, she would have missed this important moment. “It’s a total feel-good job,” says Thorp.

Posted July 2nd, 2024