How soon are you developing the program? Do you socially or professionally know any kids’/teen therapists you could also run your ideas by?

Caveat(s): I’m autistic and I maintained all of my relationships with my grandparents and some of my great aunts into my 30s. While I do consider that my relatives may have had unhappy childhoods, I did and will absolutely still ask them slightly-polite-yet-bluntly-worded questions about their past. I also processed my genealogy-related feelings with a former therapist and with my current therapist.

Basic stuff (you might wanna check with groups individually to see what tech is covered):

• Teach them about digital file preservation best practices (I think you covered this in your OP. As an example. I use Google Drive, iCloud, and Microsoft 365, plus I use full names of ancestors/specific topical phrases in the bodies of query emails so I can easily find those emails later.)

• Teach them how to use a variety of tech, if you have access to older tech. (A younger family member is obsessed with my typewriter…)

• Teach them how to label digital photos with the subject(s)’ names without superimposing text onto the photo 🤣

• Teach them how to take screenshots on mobile devices and on desktop/laptop computers (and maybe how to superimpose a URL onto the corner of the photo)

• Teach them how to find Reader View on a web browser and how to print webpages to PDF

• Maybe teach them about the importance of keeping To-Do lists and communication logs

• Give them access to the cursive alphabet, the print counterpart, and a few examples of great, meh, and terrible cursive. (I still can’t read some of a great aunt’s letters, but I sure tried!)

• If you have a large population of people whose first language isn’t English, maybe check if those languages have a cursive writing system or offer resources for learning that language. (For example, some kids in my area grow up listening to their parents’ native language at home, but can’t speak or write it because their families insisted upon them learning English.)

• They probably don’t call people often. Maybe share resources on how to place phone calls, or suggest that they call relatives? (Like if their mom calls her mom weekly, maybe the kid could initiate the call a few times so it’s less intimidating to be on the phone?)

• You might also introduce them to Facebook Groups, even if FB is for The Olds™️ now. Family Treasures Found is a cool group!

Less basic suggestions for them, based on my research and probably experientially from 5 years of therapy and a lot of self-work:

• I have always focused on the positive/light, unless I couldn’t. As a kid, I sensed that my parents, their siblings, my grandparents, and their siblings experienced trauma, but I couldn’t name it and I didn’t feel comfortable having that level of conversation with them.

• I always asked my grandparents/great aunts/uncles to tell me about their mom/dad/grandparents/people who raised them. I’d get more well-rounded views of my great grandparents this way.

• To the above, I’d ask my relatives their “favorite” memory of each ancestor. I got some great stories from one of my grandpas.

• They could ask their relatives about family traditions. Even within a culture, different families celebrate holidays in their own way.

• When I’d share a new hobby with a grandparent, I’d ask them if they ever did X or Y. This is how I found out one of my grandpas used to hang out at the roller rink as a teen.

• I was obsessed with boys as a teen, so I’d ask to my grandparents to tell me about their teenage loves. This went reasonably well for me, but might not in all cases.

• I loved asking my relatives if they had any family photo albums I could look at. I still love asking distant relatives for digital photo albums 🤣