“I am really proud to be a part of our Building Connections team. We challenge ourselves to provide a service that helps children and young people feel safe, listened to and supported. I find the passion and dedication of the people I work with inspiring.”
Loneliness is closely linked to mental health problems – the two can act as a vicious cycle, with one reinforcing the other.
As one of our trained volunteer Befrienders, you will explore with a young person their strengths and vulnerabilities, current sources of support, resilience and goals, and steps they can take to help overcome feelings of loneliness.
As a Building Connections Befriender, you’ll get the opportunity to:
This is a new free service and aims to support young people to respond positively to loneliness by:
You’ll volunteer from home in a private space, after your initial training you will be matched to support young people over 11 sessions following the 7-stage practice model we will introduce to you during your training, to help the young person develop skills to manage their emotions around loneliness, build their confidence, self-esteem and support them to find new ways to cope.
As a volunteer Befriender, you’ll be working with young people who have been referred by a professional in their life who has identified that they would benefit from the support of the service. By giving a weekly commitment of between 2 hours over the 11-week period, you will be helping a young person feel safe, listened to, and supported.
You will receive a combination of training via online classroom in Microsoft Teams as well as online self-study modules. When you start delivering the sessions, support will be on offer by Befriending Coordinators and Team Managers. Befriending Coordinators will provide regular supervisions and group supervision sessions for learning and development.
Have a look at our open opportunities near where you live:
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