Before you make a referral to our service, to help you decide if the person you are referring is right for our project, it is important that you read our guidance notes for referrers below.

The option to register for support follows these notes

Guidance Notes

In order for us to help you to meet the needs of the older generation in our community, we have drawn together these Guidance Notes to help you decide if the person you are referring is right for our project.

Our Service is designed for older people ie people over 60 years of age. 

We have two strands to our Project:

ONE TO ONE BEFRIENDING
– a weekly visit in a person’s home to people who are SOCIALLY ISOLATED and LONELY

HAPPY HUBS
– which are friendly group activity sessions.

One-to-one visiting is NOT ideal for everyone, the visit has to be as rewarding for the person receiving the visit as it is for the visitor.

We find that our Happy Hubs are more convivial, where people can make new friends at a time in their lives when they may be losing them.

Our Happy Hubs are friendly get‐togethers that encourage social interaction and help to improve verbal communication.

In order for more people to be able to attend the Happy Hubs (particularly the housebound and those who have lost their confidence), we provide a transport service that collects the individuals from their homes, brings them to the Happy  Hub and returns them afterwards.

This is of particular value to wheelchair users and the less mobile, who otherwise would be unable to take part.

Our volunteers ‘Meet and Greet’ all people who arrive, particularly those who are attending for the first time, so that they are not phased by entering a room of strangers.

We attempt to visit everyone that is referred to us, but we have limited resources. Time spent visiting people referred to us inappropriately is not good use of our time when we really can’t help them. This can result in being faced with disgruntled family members who feel that the system has let them down.

We do not charge for our service, but we would ask that you take the following factors into consideration when making a referral:

What we are NOT: 

• We are NOT a quick fix, we encourage long-term friendships.
• Our service is NOT suitable for individuals with profound Dementia.
• We are NOT a sitting service to enable family members to do their shopping or to socialise.
• Our service is NOT suitable for people with a history of profound mental illness.
• Although the majority of our volunteers have undergone Dementia Friendly training, we are NOT carers and CANNOT undertake any duties that would normally fall under the remit of a carer, particularly providing personal care.

PLEASE LET US KNOW ABOUT anyone who could benefit from one-to-one company in their own home or group company at one of our Happy Hubs.

Please encourage Happy Hubs to people as a POSSIBLE VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY, especially for people who are lonely and feel they want to give something back to the community.

Clicking the button above confirms you have read and understood the guidance notes!