The Patchworks project was set up to explore the health and communication needs of homeless people in Morecambe.\u00a0Specifically, the project set out to find out how homeless
\npeople might co-design and co-develop a prototype digital\u00a0tool using cheap, open source technology that can help to\u00a0monitor and communicate their health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n
The Patchworks team of Lancaster University academics, from\u00a0bio-medicine, computer science, art, design, anthropology,\u00a0sociology and management science worked with Signposts, a\u00a0charity focused on helping the homeless in Morecambe, and\u00a0MadLab, a group of innovators who share and experiment\u00a0with inexpensive open-source technology.<\/p>\n
A prototype called #Pat, a Personal Appointment Ticketing\u00a0service. #Pat is intended to enable homeless people living\u00a0chaotic transient lives to track their appointments with the
\nswipe of an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) enabled\u00a0wristband or card. The team developed a shoebox-size device\u00a0that contained a Raspberry Pi low-cost computer, RFID reader,\u00a0and a tiny printer, similar to that in an electronic cash register.\u00a0The #Pat device then prints out a personalized reminder list of\u00a0appointment dates, times and places.<\/p>\n
As such, #Pat provides\u00a0inexpensive, mobile access to information for those with\u00a0limited or restricted internet access.<\/p>\n
The biggest success of Patchworks was the development\u00a0of a new process for working together where the power\u00a0to imagine and invent futures is extended to vulnerable
\ncommunities.<\/p>\n
The #Pat prototype itself is now to be developed and repurposed\u00a0for a collaborative Big Lottery funded project, \u2018CAN\u2019\u00a0help, involving 15 local organisations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
#Pat is intended to enable homeless people living chaotic transient lives to track their appointments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":288,"parent":7,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-project.php","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-38","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38\/revisions\/384"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/catalystproject\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}