Accessing Social Housing Services Online: Guidance for Ethnic Minorities

This video shares key research findings about the experiences of ethnic minorities navigating social housing services online (digitally). It aims to support individuals with this transition by raising awareness of challenges and offering guidance to improve their experiences.

This guidance includes:

• Making a complaint to your council or housing association.

• Seeking expert advice from organisations like Shelter.

• Contacting the Housing Ombudsman for support with unresolved issues.

Empower yourself to navigate social housing services as they go online with confidence. Watch now and share to support ethnic minority communities online.

This educational video is one outcome of the Protecting Minority Ethnic Communities Online (PRIME) project, which is a collaboration between five universities and five community organisation partners, led by Heriot-Watt University (HWU). The other university partners are the University of Glasgow (UoG), the University of York (UoY), The Open University (OU), and Cranfield University (CU). The community organisation partners are BEAP Community Partnership, BRAP, the Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN), CEMVO Scotland, and the Tower Hamlets Chinese Association. This video is available in the following languages: English, Cantonese Gujarati, Hindi, Mandarin, Punjabi, Somali, Sylheti, and Urdu.

Gina Netto (HWU) was responsible for writing the script with inputs from Farjana Islam (HWU), Aunam Quyoum (UofG), Deborah Menezes (HWU), Mennan Guder (CU), Mehdi Rizvi (HWU), Agnes Kukulska-Hulme (OU) and Laura Whyte (HWU) as well as the community partners listed above and members of the advisory group of the project. The videos were produced in the Institute of Educational Technology (OU), with contributions from Sara Bailey (OU), Elizabeth FitzGerald (OU) and Agnes Kukulska-Hulme (OU). Support with identifying/selecting voiceover artists and checking the translation of the scripts was provided by Zinat Aboli, Chi Keung Chan, Kefan Chen (HWU), Farjana Islam (HWU), Faisal, Mohamed Mussa, Mizan Rahman, Mehdi Rizvi (HWU), Yingfang Yuan (HWU), Aunam Quyoum (UoG), and Xiao Quian Zhou. This work is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant number EP/W032333/1.