Community Befriender

What does community befriending involve?

 You would be supporting people who have  difficulty coping with day-to-day tasks on their own. Those who benefit from  the befriending service include people with mental illness, people with learning  disabilities and the elderly.

Community befriending volunteering might  include:

• supporting people with tasks in their homes, such as cooking
• escorting people to day centres (or supporting paid workers in       this)
• running errands
• supporting people with study or life skills.

What could befriending lead to?

Volunteering as a befriender would give you  valuable experience if you wanted to become a Healthcare Assistant, a Hospital  Porter or an Occupational  Therapy Support Worker.

What skills do I need?

 To be a befriender you should be:

• able to work with all kinds of people
• friendly and reliable
• able to work on your own as well as with members of staff
• prepared to offer support during good and bad times
• able to demonstrate empathy with patients
• committed to helping others.

If you'd like to know more about being a  volunteer, give us acall! All calls are confidential and because we're impartial, you'llget the best possible advice on your options.  You can also email an adviser or request a call back at a time tosuit you.