Guide shines spotlight on Renfrewshire
A charity that helps disabled people, members of the armed forces and older people to find a home is helping newcomers find out more about Renfrewshire.
Housing Options Scotland uses a team of brokers, volunteers and directors to help people find a home.
They realised the people they help sometimes need some extra support in getting settled, so have started producing gu ide s containing essential information.
T h e Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire guides were the first two to be completed.
No w the cha r ity has decided the guides will be made available to everyone, not just those it helps.
Barrhead woman Paula Clearly, pictured, who has volunteered with the charity since April, helped put the guides together.
She said: “I discovered new things about my area, especially new green spaces. I’ve discovered parks I didn’t know existed!
“When researching the ‘Money’ section, I realised just how many charities there were to help. It was interesting to find the range of organisations.
“We had to think carefully about the client group of people, and we had to think about their vulnerabilities, giving them enough information so they could follow-up the information, but not to spoon feed.
“Rather than telling people things, the guide allows the reader to still retain their independence, but just talks them through how to do it.”
The guides contain a range of information, including key contacts, a housing checklist, and a range of leisure activities. They include hyperlinks so the user can follow the links themselves.
A spokesperson for
Housing Options Scotland said: “When we discovered the wealth of information t hat the volunt e e r s had collected, and the discoveries that they had made, we decided to make the housing guides available for everyone to access.
“Seeing the pleasure which Paula derived in finding out about her local area, it would be a shame not to share it with all residents of the council areas.”
There are currently seven completed guides and work is continuing on all Scottish council areas.
To view the guides, go to https:// sites. google. com/ view/hos-your-area-guides/ home
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