Day 109: Befriending
I've spent the afternoon in Devizes learning about Age UK. I applied to join as a volunteer after I saw a request for people to consider befriending a lonely person. It's something I thought I'd be able to do and, as they are only asking for a minimum of one hour each week, something that I definitely have the time to do.
It seems that, as with many charities and voluntary organisations, things progress slowly, all of which means that I won't be linked with a 'friend' until some time next year. They are also in the middle of changing their procedures so 'befriending' is out and 'well-being' is the way forward. It wasn't completely clear today but it seems that the voluntary role I was interested in, i.e. visiting, chatting, drinking coffee, making friends, will now change to a role where as well as doing all that, you also encourage the person you are visiting to take part in community activities.
The next stage is to go on a course which goes into detail about the ins and outs of well-being and explains what my role as a visitor will be. I've come home from today's course feeling a little disappointed that it's changing and that it will take so long to get started, but I'll just have to be patient and continue with the process.
It sounds so very worthwhile - good for you! Shame you can't get going more quickly but I'm sure things will get put in motion in due time, and when they do I'd love to hear all about it. Loneliness is the pits ... a role like that might be something I'd be interested in pursuing too. Good luck with it!
ReplyDeleteThat's so interesting because my family has just started contact with Age UK as my parents are getting frail. We were impressed.
ReplyDeleteJ x
It seems like there's always a lot of red tape around volunteering! I looked into a few volunteering opportunities when I first retired, but, all the forms to be filled, all the references and finger printing, etc., sort of turned me off. I understand the need for all the protocols, but, it wasn't quite as easy as I was hoping it would be. I'll be reading on to see how it worked out for you.
ReplyDeleteI gave up in the end. Too much red tape and very little progress meant I was just going round in circles and I couldn't see an end to it. They also wanted much more personal information than I have ever had to reveal for working with children and I eventually decided this particular form of volunteering wasn't for me.
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