Smartline Festive Community Event
Last week Smartline hosted a festive event to encourage greater community cohesion and tackle social isolation within the Camborne, Pool, Illogan and Redruth area. The event offered attendees a chance to meet with their neighbours whilst making festive crafts and enjoying lunch together.
In addition to the social aspect of the event, attendees were also given the opportunity to interact with businesses that have been supported by the Smartline project. This included demonstrations from Duesday, who have reinvented the way we pay our recurring bills and gives a flexible alternative to the direct debit with the ability to split bills and even earn points and discounts for paying early.
Academics from the University of Exeter were on hand throughout the event to explain the data analysis that has taken place since the installation of home sensors. A 6 page leaflet was produced based on the research of Tamaryn Menneer, University of Exeter Research Fellow and Dr Markus Mueller, Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics. Tam explains “We have been able to group 233 homes by typical characteristics, for instance how many people live in the home and how many hours they spend indoors. This has resulted in a series of average values for each sensor and although we actually don’t know much about what levels are “good” or “bad” at present, there are some practical steps that participants can take to improve their indoor environment”.
The event was held in the Wesley Centre in Camborne which is well known to the project participants due to the proximity to their homes. The centre also plays host to a regular Smartline armchair exercise class taking place there, with SPARC leading classes on alternate Friday mornings. If you would like more information on the community activities please contact Karen Spooner at karens@volunteercornwall.org.uk.
Smartline would welcome any ideas for future community events via Smartline@exeter.ac.uk