Good neighbour University staff ease shopping blues for older people
Posted on 31 January 2005
The new 'NetNeighbours' project, established in partnership with Age Concern, allows staff to go Internet shopping for older people whose mobility problems mean they are unable to make it to the supermarket themselves.
Volunteers, registered with Age Concern, contact clients by telephone to have a chat and also find out what groceries and other supplies they need before ordering them using their University computer. The shopping is delivered to the customer's door by the store concerned.
The scheme was set up after members of the University's Human Computer Interaction Group, who joined staff from the City of York Council's Warden Call system on routine visits to older people, and were shocked by the difficulties faced by some in getting to the shops.
Dr Mark Blythe, of the University's Department of Computer Science, who helped to establish NetNeighbours, said: "We set up a pilot scheme working with Jenny Jarred who is involved in a hospital after-care scheme for Age Concern York. We wanted to make sure that NetNeighbours was financially secure and that it would also function as a befriending service. One of the great problems for older people living independently is isolation.
"Many people no longer have the time to volunteer for organisations like Age Concern any more, but this scheme allows them to still do something worthwhile in bite-sized chunks of time.
We would like to roll NetNeighbours out to other employers in the city such as banks, insurance offices and credit card agencies to see if we could get more volunteers
Dr Mark Blythe
"We would like to roll NetNeighbours out to other employers in the city such as banks, insurance offices and credit card agencies to see if we could get more volunteers."
The scheme is still in its infancy and many more volunteers are needed to meet demand. Current volunteers include Karen Hannah, a catering assistant at the University's Roger Kirk Centre, who now regularly telephones her "NetNeighbour" to check what shopping she requires before ordering it from her desk on the Internet.
"Once I've found out the order, I have a chat to see if she's OK, then I arrange to phone at a later date when the groceries will have been delivered," she said.
"I just love the scheme. I don't have any grandparents but used to love talking to my Gran when she was alive. I guess my net neighbour is a surrogate Granny!
"We dreamed up the idea about a year ago and would like to recruit more people now we're confident it works well."
The project is being run by the University's Centre for Useable Home Technology (CUHTec) in partnership with Active York, which encourages University staff and students to share their time and skills with the local community. It has also received financial backing from City of York Council.
People interested in volunteering can ring Jenny Jarred at Age Concern in York, 01904 627995 or email her at Jenny.Jarred@york.nhs.uk.
Notes to editors:
- Active York is one of a number of ways in which the University of York encourages and supports volunteering in York and North Yorkshire. With more than 9,000 students and 2,000 staff, the University has a pool of enthusiastic, committed and skilled volunteers that can make a real difference to the community. Active York provides members of the University with access to small-scale funding to develop new means of supporting the community. Active York is the University of York's distinctive response to the Higher Education Funding Council for England's Active Community Fund.
- The Human Computer Interaction Group consists primarily of researchers from the University of York's Departments of Psychology, Computer Science and Electronics.