Near Me

Bridgewater Housing Association is committed to providing opportunities for tenants to maximise the opportunities that digital technologies can bring. The Association decided to trial Near Me in its housing support service (sheltered housing) to engage with sheltered tenants through face-to-face calls, initially to reduce isolation and loneliness.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Association’s staff worked from home and carried out enhanced welfare calls to tenants via the telephone. The advantages of Near Me video calls include:

• staff being able to visually check how tenants are

• using video calls to support plan reviews (previously carried out over the phone)

• potential to include family members in reviews.

Bridgewater Housing Association successfully secured a number of digital tablet devices for its sheltered housing tenants through Connecting Scotland funding. Having the opportunity to use Near Me will help further develop tenants’ skills and confidence. It will also offer an additional means of communication with those who are already digitally active. The Association has already included an article in its sheltered and extra care newsletter to tenants, raising awareness of the platform.

Initial feedback from the tenants involved in the video calls has been very positive. Tenants commented that it was easy to join the video call and they would be interested in taking part in similar calls again.

Staff too feel that Near Me is easy to access and use. They have enjoyed engaging with tenants through this format, especially as there were few face-to-face visits during the pandemic. There is the potential for Bridgewater Housing Association to expand the use of Near Me video calls to welfare rights, housing management and technical services. [Near Me]