Students live rent free in nursing home
by Startacus Admin
The staggering cost of rented property is never far from our screens and printed media these days, with prices across the country, and particularly in the London area spiralling to such an extent, that housing costs have long been reaching unaffordable and wholly unsustainable levels.
The majority of people in rented accommodation are feeling the pinch from these high rates of rent, but perhaps none so keenly as students and young adults embarking on their careers in a market that seems to assume everyone is earning a fair and decent wage.
Some folks in The Netherlands have come up with a rather novel way of solving this, and some other social issues through an innovative scheme that sees young people take up residence in the very last place you would expect to find them living; a nursing home.
In a move which is beneficial to both the elderly residents and the students, Gea Sijpkes CEO of social impact organisation Humanitas Deventer, has implemented the shared housing strategy that provides students with free accommodation in return for 30 hours work per month in the nursing home. The work includes handling some of the day to day aspects of running a sheltered housing facility, but many of the students spend much of their time simply interacting with their elderly neighbours.
Sijpkes uses a really nice turn of phrase to describe the aims of the project, it is she says “a social return on investment against loneliness”.
It’s all part of his vision to create a sustainable warm, welcoming, and enjoyable living experience for residents, that is extremely expensive to achieve through the traditional means of hiring staff.
By putting his mind to it, he has come up with a creative and ingenious way to make his vision a reality through a system of mutually assured benefits. For this ingenuity, and innovative thinking Startacus salutes all involved; but there is so much more than just practical advantages to be gleaned from this most unusual of living arrangements.
'
It's a very good thing to connect young and old people together. They can offer each other very nice things in life,' says Sijpkes
'The most benefit is for the elderly people. They say that the young ones bring the outside world inside their lives and their building.'
What a truly marvellous way to approach a number of social and economic issues, we can only hope that this kind of thinking will spread far and wide.You might also like to take a look at the social enterpirse that offers young people greatly reduced rented accommodation in return for charity work.
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Bubblebum has had its flagship product named as one of the Most Innovative and Most Attractive at the Child Baby & Maternity Expo in China.
Influencer marketing remains largely unchartered territory for many businesses, so here are some tips for getting it right on the first go.
Step forward Raise Accelerator, Northern Ireland's first privately-run startup accelerator. We chatted to three founders from their first cohort.
Rich Maaghul, CEO of ODEM.io explores the future of education and how disruption will transform the way that we learn...
The app that helps you achieve your goal body with easy to follow workouts for the gym or home.
The London based startup that has safer home care provision as its mission
The ethical rewards app Koin Rewards, reimagining loyalty through responsible shopping and tokenisation.
Lessons from Goldilocks and the three bears and why in a competitive market place just-right doesn’t go far enough
Common costly mistakes when hiring a team. Use this advice to help avoid high hiring costs, low workplace morale and mistakes.
Productivity can be positively impacted by employee engagement and workplace culture. Jonathan Richards, CEO and co-founder at Breathe, explains...
Published on: 15th July 2015
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- IAG’s Hangar 51 takes flight with latest innovation programme 31st Jul 2019 The latest Hangar 51 innovation programme is on the hunt for tech startups with a broad range of aviation industry solutions.
- 10 FMCG startups selected for first Seedrs accelerator 24th Jul 2019 10 FMCG startups selected for the 1st Seedrs FMCG accelerator, which aims to help FMCG startups raise capital on the platform
- Startup Leadership Program invites applications for its 9th London cohort 12th Jul 2019 The Startup Leadership Program continues to grow, inviting applications for its 9th London cohort to join the six-month program.
- Latest Zinc Company Builder Programme to transform the quality of later life 9th Jul 2019 Do you want to build a new purpose-driven startup with support from a world-class network of experts?
