Staff at Your University are helping local housebound residents by offering friendship and ordering their shopping online as part of a good neighbours scheme.

The scheme was set up after members of the university's Human Computer Interaction Group joined staff from York Council's Warden Call system on routine visits to older people and were shocked by the difficulties some faced in getting to the shops.

The new NetNeighbours project, established in partnership with Age Concern, allows staff to go Internet shopping for those unable, through mobility difficulties, to go to the shops themselves. The volunteers – all registered with Age Concern – contact clients by telephone to chat and find out what groceries and other supplies they need before ordering them using university computers. The shopping is then delivered to the customer's door.

Dr Mark Blythe, of the university's department of computer science, who helped to establish NetNeighbours, said: "We set up a pilot scheme working with Jenny Jarred, who is involved in a hospital after-care scheme for Age Concern York. We wanted to make sure that NetNeighbours was financially secure and that it would also function as a befriending service. One of the great problems for older people living independently is isolation.
"Many people no longer have the time to volunteer for organisations like Age Concern any more, but this scheme allows them to still do something worthwhile in bite-sized chunks of time.

"We would like to roll NetNeighbours out to other employers in the city, such as banks, insurance offices and credit card agencies, to see if we could get more volunteers."

As with every new initiative, volunteers are always in high demand

Volunteer Karen Hannah, a catering assistant at the university's Roger Kirk Centre, regularly telephones her "NetNeighbour" to check what shopping she requires before ordering it from her desk on the Internet.

"Once I've found out the order I have a chat to see if she's OK, then I arrange to phone at a later date when the groceries will have been delivered," she said.

"I just love the scheme. I don't have any grandparents but used to love talking to my gran when she was alive. I guess my net neighbour is now a surrogate granny.

The project is being run by the university's Centre for Useable Home Technology (CUHTec) in partnership with Active York, which encourages the university's 2,000 staff and 9,000 students to share their time
and skills with the local community. It has also received financial backing from York Council.