- Home
- England
- Herefordshire
- Coming to a screen near you…
Coming to a screen near you…
- By Chief Editor
- Published 15 Feb 2008
- Herefordshire
- Unrated
They’re unlikely to ever get nominated for an Oscar, but a series of on-line videos in a handful of languages giving advice about affordable housing in Herefordshire has become an overnight hit.
The eight short videos are being screened on the Home Point website to help local people, particularly those who don’t speak English, understand how to sign up with the organisation to secure affordable housing in Herefordshire.
“We went live with the videos on February 1 and since then we’ve had an amazing response from customers and already had lots of request from other teams and organisations for DVD copies of the guides – we weren’t expecting that,” said Home Point manager Jamie Burns.
Home Point works with Herefordshire Council and the main housing associations in the county to manage the provision of affordable housing in the county.
The idea for the “talking brochures” came about following a review (an equality and diversity assessment) to assess how accessible affordable housing is to people who have language and literacy issues.
“The advantage of using video guides is that the
y can effectively help a wide range of customers – this is especially important as we found that many struggle or have little interest in reading through brochures and other written material.
“We also wanted a media that was particularly accessible to our customers with hearing, visual, literacy and language difficulties – one of the videos includes British Sign Language.”
Eight video guides have been produced alongside the leaflets and brochures already published. The videos cover a variety of subjects including an introduction to Home Point, details of how to register, how Home Point makes assessments and how to bid for properties.
Cllr Olwyn Barnett, cabinet member for social care adults and health, said: “If Home Point continues to get the kind of positive feedback it’s already getting it will consider producing more specific guides on a range of housing related topics and other services.
“The amount of positive feedback so far is extremely encouraging - we strongly believe that viewing the guides dramatically improves understanding and retention of information compared to the normal brochures used in the past.”
The videos can be viewed at http://www.home-point.org/index.html.
The eight short videos are being screened on the Home Point website to help local people, particularly those who don’t speak English, understand how to sign up with the organisation to secure affordable housing in Herefordshire.
“We went live with the videos on February 1 and since then we’ve had an amazing response from customers and already had lots of request from other teams and organisations for DVD copies of the guides – we weren’t expecting that,” said Home Point manager Jamie Burns.
Home Point works with Herefordshire Council and the main housing associations in the county to manage the provision of affordable housing in the county.
The idea for the “talking brochures” came about following a review (an equality and diversity assessment) to assess how accessible affordable housing is to people who have language and literacy issues.
“The advantage of using video guides is that the
“We also wanted a media that was particularly accessible to our customers with hearing, visual, literacy and language difficulties – one of the videos includes British Sign Language.”
Eight video guides have been produced alongside the leaflets and brochures already published. The videos cover a variety of subjects including an introduction to Home Point, details of how to register, how Home Point makes assessments and how to bid for properties.
Cllr Olwyn Barnett, cabinet member for social care adults and health, said: “If Home Point continues to get the kind of positive feedback it’s already getting it will consider producing more specific guides on a range of housing related topics and other services.
“The amount of positive feedback so far is extremely encouraging - we strongly believe that viewing the guides dramatically improves understanding and retention of information compared to the normal brochures used in the past.”
The videos can be viewed at http://www.home-point.org/index.html.