Helping sheltered housing tenants to get connected

Published: Friday 28 June 2024

This image shows some of the council's digital champions

Digital Champions are helping sheltered housing tenants to build their confidence and get online.

Following successful bids to Connecting Scotland and the Lintel Trust’s Community Wellbeing Fund, Wi-Fi enabled iPads are now available in sheltered housing communal spaces.  All sheltered housing tenants can use these for free, enabling them to get online.

We know that not everyone has the skills to use technology, so Digital Champions, who are Sheltered Housing Officers, are there to help sheltered housing tenants build their confidence and develop their I.T. skills. 

This is important as many services are moving to online and digital platforms and it is also a great way for tenants to keep in touch with friends and family, which can help reduce loneliness, isolation and improve health and wellbeing.

All Champions have attended introductory training which helps them to support tenants to develop a range of skills including;

  • getting started and core skills, setting up email accounts and passwords
  • communication tools, including video messaging and using social media
  • staying safe online and handling information

Digital Champions are also working to promote the use of the i-Pads at a local level and help build digital capacity more widely for sheltered housing tenants.