At the YourHome Service in Edinburgh, we have been successful in securing funding from the Scottish Government Wellbeing Fund to purchase tablet computers and internet access for up to 20 people who use our service. YourHome supports those in the Edinburgh area who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The housing support we offer is holistic in nature, offering support with all aspects of life which might affect how hard it will be for someone to maintain a home.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are no longer able to meet our service users face-to-face but instead rely on supporting them over the phone. This has many challenges. During a time where our clientele may need more support than ever, many of our service users cannot afford credit for their phones and thus cannot get in touch when they need to. Many of the forms and paperwork we support our service users to fill out can now only be filled out online and our service users either lack good internet connectivity or the skills to navigate the internet well. On top of this, many of our service users feel more isolated than ever and the lack of social contact is having challenging effects on their mental wellbeing.
The success of securing this funding will allow us purchase tablet computers with prepaid internet access and video call capability to distribute to some of our most vulnerable and disconnected service users. This will enable us to support these individuals in a way which allows face-to-face interaction without any physical contact; allowing us to support service users more effectively in managing their accommodation. Our hope is to also trial a digital audiobook book club with service users, as a form of groupwork focussing on wellbeing and forming community. We are very excited about the prospect of rolling out these services and are grateful to the funders for valuing the work we do with vulnerable people at this time.
Further details on the Scottish Government Wellbeing Fund
