The Health, Housing, and Technology Challenge

ACIS are a not-for-profit social housing organisation located in Lincolnshire and across the East Midlands.

A large proportion of ACIS’ primary customer base is over the age of 50, a lot of whom are senior citizens with growing support needs. The additional support required to care for these older clients is a driving factor for the development of new services for ACIS. As such, they set the challenge of investigating how they could reduce feelings of social isolation and improve safety and health by using technological innovation for the ageing population who live independently. 

The projects team produced an extensive report highlighting key solutions which included the development of an integrated partnership with Age UK campaigns to increase the presence of events and activities and encourage engagement in local communal spaces. The report recognised the benefits of forming partnerships with Lincolnshire-based further and higher education institutions to support the delivery of communal space activities as well as providing IT training and social support. 

The group’s suggestions were explored further by ACIS and the students were able to gain first-hand experience into what it would be like to work for a charity organisation as well as gaining experience in a completely different area to their degree subject.