Join Us
Would you like to ease the loneliness of elderly people living in care homes?
Research has found that nearly two thirds (61%) of residents in care homes experience loneliness and more than one third (35%) suffer severe loneliness. That is considerably more loneliness than experienced by elderly people who still live in their own homes (5-10%).
Why become a YOPEY Befriender?
You could help solve this problem by becoming a YOPEY Befriender and doing any combination of the following:
- visit a care home near your home or school
- write letters to residents in care homes
- make activities for them to do, such as word searches
- shoot videos of you singing a song, playing a musical instrument or reading aloud
- record Timelapse videos of you going for a walk, cooking or baking
- edit the videos into ‘YOPEY Virtual Variety Shows’
You would also be helping yourself because you would be:
- improving your communication skills
- learning history from before you were born
- developing human qualities such as empathy
- enhancing your CV, uni application and employability
How will YOPEY support you?
YOPEY will support you to help care home residents to do all or any of these things. We will send you ideas and you can ask us questions by emails. We may telephone you to give one-to-one advice and if you visit a care home we may visit it too.
Each time you do any of the above you would add a short report to your personal YOPEY Befriender profile, building up your Record of Volunteering Achievement.
When you leave YOPEY, we recommend you download a final copy of your Record of Volunteering Achievement to show people in the future.
As long as you remain a YOPEY Befriender – we would like you to volunteer with us for up to 12 months which is the period covered by your £24 joining fee– you can download your Record of Volunteering Achievement and show it to whoever you want. We may also share your Record and that of other YOPEY Befrienders with your school and relevant care homes.
Terms and Conditions
If you’d like any more information about being part of the YOPEY Befriender scheme, please get in touch by emailing us at hello@yopey.org or calling us at 01440 821654 to find out more.
Joining Fee
£24.00
Your £24 joining fee goes towards covering YOPEY’s costs in providing support to you during your volunteering with us and giving you a way in which you can record your volunteering so it looks impressive on your CV and/or application to university.
Here’s what a few past YOPEY Befrienders think about taking part…
“I would encourage others to get involved because it helps young people contribute to their wider communities and learn how to provide compassion and patience to people you may not even know.”
“I’m very excited to have received a reply to one of my letters. I also couldn’t believe that the reply came from a fellow sport-loving person.”
“I created a video of a music therapy session that YOPEY sent to care homes. I received a letter of gratitude from two women from a care home across the country. I felt I had really made a difference.”
“I believe compassion, time management, dedication and consistency are all required qualities. I have definitely improved these skills during my time as a YOPEY Befriender.”
“Being a YOPEY Befriender is a good way to gain both social and emotional resilience. These are skills that are extremely important in medical fields such as nursing or paramedics.”