Befriending Volunteering

It's a terrible thing to be lonely. Did you know that 1.2 million older people are chronically lonely? You can do something to help by becoming a befriending volunteer with Age UK Cambridgeshire and Peterborough

Sharing Time and Telephone Befriending volunteers get matched with an older person in the community. They visit them or call them on a regular basis to provide companionship.

Sharing Time - Home Visiting

We aim to reduce loneliness and social isolation in later life by sharing time together, providing friendship and support.

Support is in the form of regular contact from a fully trained volunteer. Contact is usually once a week by a visit to your home.

How a volunteer helps

👂 Conversation - listening and talking.
💭 Sharing reminiscence - looking at photos.
🎲 Play board & card games, share crosswords & puzzles.
☎️ Read post, help with correspondence, and make phone calls.
🔨 Provide a link to other services and support.
🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼 Sharing Stories, Sharing Life (see below link for more information).
💻 Watch videos and clips, sharing an experience to talk about it, valuing conversation and reminiscing.

Watch our video below of Volunteer Sammie and Service User Janis. They talk about their experience with Sharing Time and how it makes a difference.

Creating friendships really do make a difference. Watch this heartwarming story of how volunteer Karen managed to work some magic and make Ken's dreams come true.

Telephone Befriending

Our trained volunteers offer weekly friendship and support, sharing time over the telephone with an older person to reduce feelings of social isolation and loneliness.

How can we help

We match our service users with a volunteer for a weekly chat. Our service has helped create lots of new friendships, and many people tell us their calls are the highlight of their week.

Volunteers can:

❤️Reduce isolation and loneliness
🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼Create new friendships
💭Link the service user to other services and support

Watch the video below of Volunteer Kevin, who has been volunteering as a Telephone Befriender for six years. Kevin talks about what Telephone Befriending is, how he enjoys it, and why more people should volunteer for this rewarding service.