Choose your way to become a YOPEY Befriender...
YOPEY Dementia Befriender Community Partnerships
In the East of England – Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk and places that border these counties – we run YOPEY Dementia Befriender Community Partnerships between schools or colleges and care homes. We will come in to your school or college to recruit volunteers. We usually recruit sixth-formers but we have worked with other groups of students, such as those studying health and social care, and primary schoolchildren. We will train them how to relate to people living with dementia. If the care home requires the new YOPEY Befrienders to be DBS checked we will help them through this process.
For young people living in the UK– our new Independent YOPEY Befriender
YOPEY is often approached by young people, families, teachers and care home staff in areas where we do not run partnerships so we have come up with this additional way that young people can become YOPEY Befrienders. This is how these young people and the elderly, schools and care homes in any part of the UK can benefit. For just £29 any young person can join YOPEY. We will point you to places where you can receive information about dementia and may provide you with training. We will give you a letter to send to your local care homes. If you do not want to visit the elderly, we will help you to write letters and make activities such as word searches for the elderly to enjoy.
For both Partnership YOPEY Befrienders and Independent YOPEY Befrienders
Every young person will have a private profile on our website yopeybefriender.org where they will earn digital badges and build up their Record of Volunteering Achievement. We will encourage you to visit the elderly care home residents as often as possible and to write reports, which will be added to your Record. If you do something outside the care home for the elderly, such as making their Life Story or taking them out, you should also submit reports. You will be able to download your Record, add it to applications to universities and for jobs and apprenticeships. Schools, colleges and care homes can ask YOPEY to compile a report of all their YOPEY Befrienders’ reports which they can show to inspection bodies, Ofsted and CQC, and other stakeholders.
Awards for all
For YOPEY Befrienders who particularly impress with their help for the elderly, YOPEY may arrange for them to receive an award. We will try to hold award ceremonies for the best Partnership YOPEY Befrienders in each partnership. For Independent YOPEY Befrienders, we will send you certificates.
How students, schools, care homes and donors can help…
Students
YOPEY welcomes students to be a Befriender and help ease the loneliness of elderly people living in care homes.
Schools
YOPEY mainly works with sixth forms to train and support their students to visit local care homes. We will consider applications from other school years.
Care homes
Any care home in the UK is welcome to apply to have a YOPEY Befriender scheme. We will aim to recruit 10-30 young people to visit your residents.
Funders & donors
Funding allows us to provide consistent support to our YOPEY Befrienders for a year, providing them with training, regular contact, support materials, activities and projects.
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