The Eindhoven project Buurtpost wants to promote social contacts by having lonely local residents accept parcels, for which welfare organisation Buro Cement has received a subsidy of one tonne.
Eindhovens Dagblad reports.Buurtpost works together with residents who are willing to accept parcels for local residents. These can be people who are isolated and would like to have a chat. They receive a short course and possibly a tablet or mobile phone, with which they can inform neighbours about the delivered parcels. The 'neighbourhood poster' receives 30 euro cents per parcel, 50 cents when he delivers it to the addressee.
Neighbourhood deliverers who use the service pay five euros a year. In doing so, Pijnenburg underlines the importance of the neighbourhood function. For five euros a year, the customer not only streamlines his parcel delivery but also supports a neighbourhood resident. "People connect through the parcel delivery vehicle," Jeroen Pijnenburg told the Eindhovens Dagblad.
Jeroen Pijnenburg of Buro Cement received financial support for the realisation of Buurtpost from Stichting Doen and the Anton Jurgensfonds, institutions that support social initiatives. Pijnenburg conducted research among a thousand potential customers of Buurtpost. 68 per cent said they would like to use it, 35 per cent said they would pay for it.
On 17 November, the project will start in Woensel-Noord. In time, Buro Cement wants to expand to the whole of Eindhoven and then to the rest of the Netherlands. Contacts are said to have already been made in Utrecht and Haarlem. Pijnenburg says that companies like bol.com are also willing to help pay for national coverage, in order to meet the call for social entrepreneurship.
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