Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Seescape, a sight loss charity, partnered with PwC through the Scottish Tech Army initiative to develop an app enhancing safety and efficiency for staff and volunteers during home visits. The app streamlines processes, ensuring better safeguarding and allowing the charity to support more visually impaired clients across Fife. This collaboration highlights the positive impact of private sector expertise on third sector challenges.
A new app to help charities and voluntary organizations protect staff and volunteers working in the community has been developed thanks to a partnership between a leading sight loss charity and PwC. Fife-based charity Seescape worked with the global consultancy firm to produce the app through the Scottish Tech Army initiative. The project pairs third sector organizations with skilled volunteers in the private sector to create innovative IT solutions to issues they are facing on a pro bono basis.
What Are the App’s Features and Benefits?
Seescape’s new app manages the process of staff and volunteers checking in and out of home visits, making safeguarding more efficient and safer. It also allows them to reach many more visually impaired clients by streamlining their processes and saving time on lengthy checks on the phone. Last year, the charity also worked with the Scottish Tech Army to bring back the discontinued Microsoft Soundscape app, which uses audio cues to help people with visual impairments better understand their surroundings.
What Impact Does the App Have on Seescape’s Work?
`Seescape `supports people living with sight loss across Fife to live more independently and provides a range of services including rehabilitation, advice, and technology demonstrations. It supports more than 3,500 people every year in Fife with social opportunities, community-based assessments, home visits, and drop-ins at its visual impairment hub in Glenrothes to give information on the latest support and technologies available.
Lesley Carcary, Seescape’s chief executive, highlighted the importance of the innovations developed through collaboration with the Scottish Tech Army. She emphasized the necessity of ensuring the safety of staff and volunteers working in clients’ homes and expressed excitement about sharing the new app with the sector as a whole. Robert Leishman, a volunteer from PwC, shared his positive experience of working on the project, noting the tangible impact on people’s lives and recommending such volunteer work to others.
