The James McLean Project (JMP) provides accommodation and support to homeless young men and women aged 16 to 21. The team at the JMP in Barmulloch has launched an App, which will transform the way they communicate with their service users.

The App, which will improve the way the service delivers information to residents and how they feedback to the service, was officially launched in October.

Gavin Spence, Manager explained: “We need to be able to communicate efficiently with our service users to keep them informed and up-to-date about a wide range of events, activities and visits we’ve organised for them, and also about services that our young residents are interested in.

“We consulted with our young residents to get their views about how we could communicate better, and how we could make it easier for them to respond to our questionnaires or provide us with service user feedback on service provision. We recognised that most young people are pretty much glued to their mobile phones. So the obvious solution was to provide information electronically."

Gavin added: “The App also has a translation function that we hope will encourage young people whose first language isn’t English to participate in service user feedback and engage in events that we provide.

"Identified JMP staff will act as administrators. The App can only be accessed by staff and current residents with content moderated to make sure all feedback and comments are presented appropriately. New residents will be invited to join the App for the length of their stay. The App will allow us to communicate much more efficiently with our residents. And, for young people who aren’t comfortable speaking up in a group or individually to JMP staff,they’ll be able to make their views known confidentially.”