Students will tell the story of Paisley’s Shopmobility group
Duo to document project’s inspiring history
Students from Finland and Renfrewshire have teamed up to investigate the history of Paisley’s Shopmobility scheme.
Viljami Yli-Hemminki, who is from Lapua, in Finland, and Donald Thomson, from Kilbarchan, are looking into the development of the charity –which offers free scooters so that people can get about town – from its beginnings in the 1990s to the present day.
As part of their project, they are delving into the archives of the Paisley Daily Express.
And to help them get the story across, the young Glasgow University students, both 23, have been meeting past and present users of the service, as well as reading the many stories the Paisley Daily Express has written about it over the years.
Viljami said: “This is mostly a scoping exercise into the history, so there might be a big exhibition that’s going to be happening within the next four years.
“Shopmobility started as a project in Paisley back in 1992.
“It was mostly Christmas shopping help, located in the Piazza, and it’s been in this location almost 20 years now.
“There isn’t any real inherited oral history or no official history written down anywhere.
“So we started off by going to the Paisley Central Library’s archives.
“They had a small folder for us but basically we went through the indexes from 1992 to the present day and collated a history with newspaper articles, mostly from the Paisley Daily Express.
“And we also sent out around 940 surveys to members all around Paisley and further afield.”
Added Donald: “There’s someone in Oban who still wants to use the service, which is quite surprising actually!”
And Donald said no- one has written a history of Shopmobility before.
“The information was all over the place, so we are really collating all of that.
“We want to present it, maybe like a history leaflet, next year so that there is a history there and a legacy, and people seem to understand that that’s important,” he said.
It is important to write a history of Shopmobility Paisley and District because of the often unseen status of disabled people, Viljami added.
“I would imagine that histories of disabled people haven’t really been written in a major way,” he said.
“There are many history books on certain big topics but other people are every often forgotten.
“And it also helps because we are here from the Glasgow University Settlement – it’s a charity organisation that’s sends graduates and students into the surrounding area to engage with the community.”
In the course of their work both Viljami and Donald have found out how important Shopmobility is to people in the Paisley area.
“It’s absolutely crucial really,” Donald said.
“From the survey results we are getting back, everybody is saying without the service they’d be basically housebound.
“And there’s the social aspect of it as well.
“It’s easier for them to get out and about and see their friends.
“They have a sense of independence they wouldn’t have otherwise because they don’t have to rely on other family members to push them about.”
It is expected that Viljami and Donald’s history of Shopmobility Paisley and District will be available as a leaflet and online next year.