Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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October 01 2023

If you’re looking for local services and support, there is a new app that can help connect you to what you’re looking for. By Ian Kalman

Where do you go if you need advice? There is a plethora of services across the country. So, before you go anywhere you must find the appropriate organisation and make sure it is operating in your area. One of the more common problems we face nowadays is that some organisations are only looking at people in their area and are enforcing the local connection rule. This is mainly due to a lack of funding, or that the funding they get is based on the idea they will only deal with people in their local area.

The next step is to find the service and it’s a maze out there. I would know. Once, I needed advice and a friend mentioned a service that had helped him, I made my way there only to be informed they could not help me as I did not meet their criteria, they never told me why but I was left high and dry, they did not even offer me the name of another service.

Well, now there is a solution for navigating the maze that confronts us. It is called Public Support UK, it has a website, you can look at publicsupport.uk or if you have a smartphone you can download the app, which is both on Apple and Android. One word of advice: let it access your location.

There is a directory split into areas and then you see a list of services. When I looked for night shelters, for example, not only did I see a list of them but also how far away they were. This is the brainchild of Nicola Tennant, who began work on it in 2019. I have known her for a few years and over that time she has often told me she was working on the app. I once commented that she is app-addicted but now looking at it I can see her time was not wasted. I would recommend it to anyone.

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