Sharing Time
- Location: Age UK Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
- Price: Free
Please note, this service is not available outside Age UK Cambridgeshire & Peterborough - Head Office's catchment area.
Email: sharingtime@ageukcap.org.uk
Telephone: 01733 554963
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 either by a visit to your home or a telephone call.
How can we help
👂 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
💻 Watch videos explaining the importance of conversation and reminiscing
Please visit our news page to read about our Sharing Time stories
What to expect
• A weekly home visit, or telephone call.
• Volunteers who are carefully screened.
• The same volunteer to visit you.
• Personal information to be kept in confidence.
• To be respected and valued as an individual.
• Contact with a named Age UK employee regarding the Sharing Time service.
A volunteer cannot do housework, shopping or gardening, deal with money or bills or provide any personal care.
If you require these services please contact our Information and Advice helpline on 0300 666 9860.
For more information about volunteering please download our leaflet.
Who can we help
The service is suitable for those:
• Aged 60 or over.
• Live alone or are socially isolated (exceptional circumstances will be considered).
• Able to establish a friendship.
• Have a suitable and safe environment for a volunteer to visit.
Sharing Time is a befriending service, delivered by volunteers in the home or by telephone call. It is a service for older people, who find themselves to be isolated for reasons such as a decline in health, which can prevent individuals from socialising with others. Volunteers visit or call on a regular basis, enjoying a cup of tea and chat, enabling a friendship to form. Our aim is to ensure that both the older person and volunteer can engage and benefit from the friendship in a positive way.
• Mental ill health, including addiction, and conditions such as anxiety and depression may not be a barrier to the service so long as both parties can engage and benefit. However, if there is a need for specialist mental health interventions, it is likely that your local mental health team will be able to provide more appropriate support.
• We actively encourage a diverse group of volunteers to deliver this service and welcome older people from all backgrounds to make a suitable match.
• Where there are practical and environmental considerations such as hoarding, home location, lifestyle (e.g. pets, smoking, addiction) or other risk factors we will endeavour to work around these where possible. If there is a need outside of Sharing Time we will look to signpost to appropriate organisations.
• Those with sensory impairment are welcome, however if the older person is unable to hear or hold a conversation then this service may not be suitable and we will support access to alternative, appropriate services.
Please download our services leaflet
How to Refer:
You can refer yourself, or alternatively you can be put in touch with our team by your family, friends, or other organisations such as social services. Once you have been referred to us, a member of the Sharing Time team will arrange a visit to discuss your needs and to explain more about the service.
Contact Us
For more information please contact the Sharing Time Service:
☎️ 01733 554963
✉️ sharingtime@ageukcap.org.uk.
Find Out More
If you would like to volunteer, please contact us:
☎️ 01733 554963
✉️ volunteering@ageukcap.org.uk
Anyone who is empathetic, patient, a good listener, and able to encourage conversation. After you have completed the volunteer application process, you will be ‘matched’ to a person visit, and your journey of friendship will begin!