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YOPEY holds its first golf day to raise funds

YOPEY holds its first golf day to raise funds

YOPEY has held its first fundraising day at a golf club. The charity’s founder Tony Gearing MBE plays golf so this was a way for him to fundraise for his charity while enjoying his hobby. About £3,000 looks like being raised for YOPEY’s befriending partnerships...

Recognition and prizes for Huntingdon YOPEY teens

Recognition and prizes for Huntingdon YOPEY teens

YOPEY Befrienders from a school and a college in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, were celebrated at an awards event at the care home they have been visiting for many months. Sixth-form students from Hinchingbrooke School and health and social care students from the...

Awards for Ipswich YOPEY Befrienders

Awards for Ipswich YOPEY Befrienders

‘It has been such a pleasure to watch these young befrienders grow and develop relationships with those living in the home’ – The Partnership In Care

Tribute to a former YOPEY Befriender who has died

Tribute to a former YOPEY Befriender who has died

Before the pandemic I started a new YOPEY Dementia Befriender community partnership between the Dereham Sixth Form College and a care home in the Norfolk town. Kasey Challenger was one of about 20 sixth-formers who were trained by me and taken to York House. They...

Smiles galore during first visit

Smiles galore during first visit

SMILES GALORE show young and old enjoying themselves as young people from a Suffolk sixth Form visit residents at a care home for the first time. After arriving at Hazell Court in Sudbury, the 16 and 17 year-olds from Thomas Gainsborough School in Great Cornard joined...

Singalong shows made by young for elderly to enjoy

Singalong shows made by young for elderly to enjoy

During the coronavirus pandemic young people volunteering with the charity YOPEY started supporting locked-down care home residents ‘virtually’ by writing letters, making activities, sharing artworks and shooting entertaining videos. The videos were put together into...

First YOPEY Befriender scheme in Cambs since pandemic

First YOPEY Befriender scheme in Cambs since pandemic

Huntingdon teenagers have begun befriending elderly people living with dementia at a care home in the Cambridgeshire town. The 12 16-17 year-olds from Cambridge Regional College's Huntingdon campus and Hinchingbrooke School have met residents at Hunters Down care...

First YOPEY Befriender scheme in Suffolk since pandemic

First YOPEY Befriender scheme in Suffolk since pandemic

Sixth-formers from three Ipswich schools have begun befriending elderly people living with dementia at a care home in the town. The Suffolk charity running the scheme believes it is the first "intergenerational" befriending scheme between old and young in the county...

Age is just a number!

Age is just a number!

YOPEY Befrienders from a Norfolk sixth-form put on a quiz and karaoke for residents at a housing-with-care scheme in their home town. The young people from East Norfolk Sixth Form College in Great Yarmouth met 96-year-old Marjorie Teasdale, who recently moved in to...

‘Everyone overwhelmed with emotion’

‘Everyone overwhelmed with emotion’

More than 20 young people from a sixth-form college have begun befriending elderly residents at a care home in Norfolk following training to be the first 'YOPEY Befrienders' since the pandemic. The 22 16 to 19-year-olds, all girls, from East Norfolk Sixth Form College...