Edge Hill students develop app to help vulnerable
TALENTED students at Edge Hill University have designed and developed an app to help a children’s charity reach more vulnerable young people.
Students in the university’s Department of Computer Science have designed the app for the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS).
NYAS, which provides advocacy and legal representation, hopes the app will offer a direct line of communication to children stuck in difficult and traumatic situations.
Sir James Munby, president of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales, helped launch the app in the House of Commons on October 12.
It offers instant messaging and in-app phone calls to NYAS’ telephone helpline and crucially enables young people to self-refer.
A key design element is that information, such as material about being in care, is embedded within the password-protected app meaning it can be used offline.
The app will be hosted across social media platforms and be available from the App Store from November 1.
The app also features digital life stories videos which cover many situations NYAS’s young people find themselves in and has links to the charity’s new website.
THE rugby union teams at Edge Hill University joined forces to help the homeless on the streets of Liverpool by handing out food, water and clothes.
The men’s rugby union club’s committee wanted to try and remove the negative stigma attached to rugby, and do something good for the community.
The committee invited the rest of the team to join in, with the majority volunteering to help.
They then approached the women’s team which also wanted to get involved.
And the teams worked together to find the location of the largest homeless population in Liverpool so they could help as many people as possible.
They funded the cost of the food and water, and the tasks were split, with the men making sandwiches, and the women pasta.
“The night itself was certainly an eyeopener for all involved,” said Steven Rouke, chairman of the men’s rugby union club.
“We met people who’d been on the streets for a few days due to failed mortgage payments and those who have lived a life on the streets, partly, by their own admission, due to bad decisions and through a vicious life circle.
“It certainly showed all of us involved that it could happen to anyone at any stage, and we shouldn’t take the luxuries we have for granted.
“We wanted to do something positive as a group and whatever these people had or hadn’t done in their lives was irrelevant, they were still sleeping on the streets and were worse off than any of us.”
Matthew Greenhalgh, president of the students’ union and a university governor, has also been involved with the project.
He said: “As a previous chairman of the men’s rugby union club at Edge Hill University, I am incredibly proud of the work being done to improve the club’s impact on local communities.
“The work continues on ambitions I set for the club during my term and it is great to see.
“As president of the students’ union, it also makes me proud to see the work that this club, and other sports teams and societies do to positively engage around the university, Ormskirk, Merseyside and the wider North West area.”
As there were several media students within the group, they documented their campaign on film.
The committee hopes to run a similar campaign to help the homeless later in the year.