Funders & donors
Why you should help
At YOPEY, we are proud of the success of our work, bringing young and old together in friendships that genuinely benefit both generations. If you became a funder, we are sure you would be proud of our work too.
We encourage grants for the full annual cost of a partnership (price on application) but are grateful for smaller grants and donations, and will combine these with other sums to pay for whole partnerships or for small groups of Independent YOPEY Befrienders.
The first Young People of the Year campaign and awards were run in 2005. The aim was to give young people a fairer image and to heal the rift between generations by setting up young people doing good in their communities as positive role models for all generations to celebrate. Young People of the Year became the registered charity YOPEY in 2012.
Today we encourage young people to become good citizens by getting involved in and leading projects that benefit the wider community. Since 2013, we have been running YOPEY Dementia Befriender Community Partnerships. For these partnerships, we recruit and train young people to relate to people living with dementia and then support them to visit residents in a care home, local to their school or college
The care home experience can often be isolating for the elderly, and YOPEY Befriender aims to welcome the elderly back into the community.
With two million people in the UK predicted to have dementia by 2050, it is likely that our young volunteers will experience the impact of dementia in their own families during their lives. Equipping young people with the skills to navigate and support those with dementia is a key part of YOPEY’s strategy to enhance the experiences of the elderly in the UK.
Staff and family members of the care home residents often report the positive impact the YOPEY Befrienders have on the broader experience of not just residents but those who visit and work at the care home. The daughter of one care home resident, for example, said the young people “help my mum to have a better day”. The wife of another resident noted: “It is also good for the staff as it takes a little pressure off them.”
Our goal is to ensure that young people relate to, and not fear, elderly people living with dementia. At YOPEY, we give close support to our YOPEY Befrienders throughout the time they are volunteering with us. We providing them with dementia training (for Partnership YOPEY Befrienders), frequent contact, support materials, activities and projects to embark on with the elderly residents. Funding enables us to keep partnerships going for years by recruiting new YOPEY Befrienders as their predecessors ‘retire’, usually after a year. Funding also enables us keep our websites up to date with relevant information for our volunteers, schools and care homes, and the wider public.
The benefits are felt by everyone touched by our work. As one young YOPEY Befriender said: “Although you may think it is the residents receiving our visits that benefit the most, I think it is the other way round.”
The year of volunteering encourages the young people to think in different ways – about their new friends, about life in general and about their futures – and act independently. It can help them discover talents and passions and open their eyes to new careers. For example. a young woman who took part in an early YOPEY Befriender scheme is now a care assistant, having been inspired by her involvement with YOPEY to a different career path. Many other past YOPEY Befrienders are now doctors or nurses, or training for these careers.
YOPEY has a vision to establish the East of England – Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk – as an intergenerational best practice area, to be a Beacon for Befriending partnerships, that can be replicated across the UK by other charities and organisations. Meanwhile we have introduced Independent YOPEY Befriender for young people anywhere in the UK to have the opportunity to become a YOPEY Befriender.
Each partnership typically involves one care home and at least one school.Ideally the partners are no more than a mile apart. Although around 100 young and elderly people, and care home staff, are directly involved, each project enhances the lives of many more people, from the relatives of residents to the families of the YOPEY Befrienders who hear about the benefits and learn about dementia from their enthusiastic sons and daughters.
Beyond these people, whole communities hear about the good work of YOPEY Befrienders through the positive publicity YOPEY achieves in modern and traditional media. We have had social media posts that reached thousands and often get positive publicity in local newspapers and regional TV and radio.
Each partnership typically involves one care home and at least one school.Ideally the partners are no more than a mile apart. Although around 100 young and elderly people, and care home staff, are directly involved, each project enhances the lives of many more people, from the relatives of residents to the families of the YOPEY Befrienders who hear about the benefits and learn about dementia from their enthusiastic sons and daughters.
Beyond these people, whole communities hear about the good work of YOPEY Befrienders through the positive publicity YOPEY achieves in modern and traditional media. We have had social media posts that reached thousands and often get positive publicity in local newspapers and regional TV and radio.