Peoplehood

Blackwood is proud to have delivered the Peoplehood Project between 2022 and 2025 - a groundbreaking £12.5 million initiative that redefined how technology and data support independent living across Scotland. Delivered in partnership with The Data Lab and other collaborators, the project engaged more than 500 participants across Buckie, Dundee, and Glasgow, co-designing new models of independent living that integrated assistive technologies and digital skills training. Peoplehood demonstrated how innovation and collaboration can transform homes and communities, helping people to live healthier, more connected, and more independent lives.

The project was highly significant for Blackwood’s strategic purpose and direction and helped position us as leaders in independent living for the next 50 years. We worked with industry and academic leaders to explore how we could influence healthy ageing for our customers and local residents in the community.

The purpose of the project was to co-create beautiful places for independent living that offered what people needed to live healthier and happier for longer. We asked questions, co-designed, and tested new ideas with real people, so together we learned what it really takes to develop thriving, healthy neighbourhoods of the future.

The programme focused on five healthy ageing challenges - learn more about how we addressed these here:

• Designing age-friendly homes that were accessible, affordable, beautiful, and connected was the primary focus.

• Sustaining physical activity by providing local people with a range of activities and equipment such as electric bike stations.

• Managing common complaints of ageing, helping people through products and services to age well, feeling safe and secure in their neighbourhoods.

• Supporting social connections, helping everyone to become confident online and make the most of new and exciting technology to connect in a safe and secure way.

• Creating healthy and active places, focusing on making the neighbourhoods welcoming, accessible, and beautiful places to live.

Where were the Peoplehoods?

The Peoplehood project was developed in three areas across Scotland:

• Charleston, Dundee – Blackwood built 66 new Blackwood Homes in Charleston, adding to our existing homes in Dundee. This gave us a unique opportunity not only to explore the Peoplehood project but also to shape it from the very foundations.

• Cardonald, Glasgow – Cardonald, home to our Belses Care Home and a small number of homes surrounded by a mixture of private, council, and owned properties, allowed us to explore how we could integrate the programme and its findings within an already established community.

• Buckie, Moray – Buckie, the smallest of the three neighbourhoods, had its own unique challenges such as its rural location, limited public transport, and WiFi connectivity.

Our partners were industry experts who worked with Blackwood and citizens to deliver healthy ageing neighbourhoods and co-design the products and services.

 

Cisco International Ltd would like to test how its network technologies can help to reduce social isolation, improve digital literacy for vulnerable, and create a citizen-centric digital environment.

 

Carebuilder UKwill provide a digital platform that can improve lives, avoiding unnecessary reliance on expensive care systems and helping organisations invest more in prevention to save costs in the future.

 

Enterprise Rent-a-Car UK believe shared use of vehicles will enable the ageing population to have access to a range of mobility options. Keeping themselves mobile and taking away the financial burden of owning a vehicle.

 

Canon Medical Research Europe want to see how they can start to link information and systems in the home to other health and care systems and use technology to enable independent living.

 

 

The University of Edinburgh believe this aligns with their ‘Future Health and Care’ innovation theme which aims to transform how care is delivered for older people living at home or in supported care environments. It will include the use of Innovative A.I. & Machine Learning to a Value Exchange model to encourage and reward participation.

 

 The DataLab will provide data science support to Blackwood and the project partners, with expertise on AI and Data to help improve decision making and operations.

 

 CENSIS will support the project to provide expert advice and maximize the benefits of using sensor and IoT technologies to enable better model of community living for healthy ageing.

 

Mydex CIC will provide verified identity and personal data stores for the citizens taking part in the project. The Mydex PDS will enable data sharing for many of the products and services making it safe, secure and easy for our ageing population to access and use these them.

 

Lewis & Hickey Architectsbeen involved with Blackwood over a number of years now helping to develop the concept of independent living through adaptable design and integration of technology in the Blackwood House and Design Guide.