Befriending services

Shorter days and bad weather during Winter can sometimes make people feel even more isolated from their community and in need of human connections. Here are some of the organisations who run befriending schemes for people living in local places across Kirklees.

 


Royal Voluntary Service – Home Service

RVS provide social and emotional support to help people keep leading independent, healthy and happy lives. Support is available for everyone aged over 18 years. Under 18s will also be considered on a case by case basis. Befriending can be either face to face or over the telephone.

Tel. 01484 226363
Email: home.libraryservice@kirklees.gov.uk

Royal Voluntary Service – Supporting people

RVS – Volunteering within the community

 


Age UK

Age UK offer a befriending service for any older person who feels lonely or isolated and try to support them to lead a more fulfilling life. Support is available for everyone aged over 18 years. This can be either face to face or over the telephone (a joint project with Yorkshire Children’s Centre).

Tel. 01484 415465
Email: communityconnections@yccuk.org.uk

Age UK – Request a befriender or volunteer

 


Yorkshire Children’s Centre

Our Community Connections Befriending Service is available to adults over the age of 18 who may be experiencing isolation and loneliness or a limited social life. Support can be either face to face or over the telephone (a joint project with Age UK).

Tel. 01484 415465
Email: communityconnections@yccuk.org.uk

Community Connections – make a request or volunteer

 


MHA Communities

MHA Communities befriending service is about getting people together to make friends. Support is available for people aged 55+ in the Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Cleckheaton areas. This can either be face to face or via telephone.

Tel. 01484 515420
Email: Cheryl.flynn@mha.org.uk 

MHA Communities – Befriending

 


Luv2MeetU

Luv2meetU is a friendship service for people with a learning disability or autism. We support people to make friends and share interests. Befriending support is available for everyone aged over 18 years. This can be over the telephone, by text, via email or though chaperoned face to face friendship meets.

Tel. 07867 179902
Email: Wendy.ponton@hft.org.uk or Zoe.swearman@hft.org.uk or Halina.akrich@hft.org.uk

Luv2MeetU

 


The Kirkwood

The Kirkwood provide befriending support for people who have life-limiting illness or who are bereaved. This can be either face to face or over the telephone.

Contact: Sharon Kingsley
Tel. 01484 557917

The Kirkwood

 


 

Befriending Partnership – Can you help?

Lady talking on a mobile phone sitting at home.

Could you make time for a 30 minute conversation that can make a huge difference to someone’s life?

The Befriending Partnership are continuing to help tackle isolation through their telephone befriending service. Set up part of the amazing response from community organisations in Kirklees during the coronavirus lockdown, this vital service is supporting older people and vulnerable adults.

The partnership is led by the Yorkshire Children’s Centre and Age UK Calderdale and Kirklees. They are still receiving daily referrals for people who are at home and feeling lonely. This is a key time when we’re once again more isolated from each other and when we’re heading towards the colder winter months. They really need more volunteers.

Could you give up a small amount of your time to have a conversation with someone in need?

Full training (via Zoom) and support will be provided to help more people take up this important role. Not sure how to use Zoom? Support will be provided to help you.


How to get involved

Register your interest in being a telephone befriender

Anyone can call the telephone befriending phone line on 01422 252 040
or email enquiries@ageukck.org.uk


Find out more

 

Read our blog about the Befriending Partnership

How the Befriending Partnership are connecting people during lockdown and beyond

 

Loneliness Awareness Week (15th to 19th June)

Lady talking on a mobile phone sitting at home.

Loneliness can be difficult to talk about. It’s hard for people to say sometimes that they feel lonely. It shouldn’t be, but it is. The last few weeks in lockdown will potentially have highlighted to some of us what loneliness is who haven’t previously given it a second thought. There are others who may well have felt lonely even before lockdown.

Writing something to share that dwelled on all the effects loneliness can have on our mental and physical wellbeing didn’t feel quite appropriate. What so many Mutual Aid Groups, volunteers and neighbours have been doing over the last few weeks is a demonstration that loneliness and isolation is being tackled, that we are aware and collectively we are doing something about it.

Tackling loneliness may have been disguised as the shopping you’ve done for a vulnerable neighbour, or picking up that prescription from the pharmacy, because the other part of that action is the conversation you’ve had with those people and making sure they’re okay. Small human interactions can make all the difference.

How many of you have seen or helped out celebrating an older person’s birthday who lives on your street? How many of you have clapped for carers on a Thursday evening, then exchanged words with neighbours you haven’t really talked to before?

The actions of groups, volunteers, friends and neighbours have helped to reduce isolation, and have demonstrated the caring nature of people and communities. Together we’ve done that.

Yet there is still a need for vigilance and awareness beyond our own neighbourhoods. There is always potential for individuals to fall through the gaps, but there are also local volunteer befriending services who do amazing work to catch those people.

The challenge for us all will be to maintain our neighbourliness beyond lockdown and to keep talking to each other, to keep visiting those who may be more vulnerable, whether that’s an older person or someone who you know that isn’t as socially mobile as they would like to be.

You might have been inspired yourself to sign up to be a volunteer at the befriending service, or know someone who you think might want to do that. We should all encourage that as an option. But we should all keep doing what we’re doing.

If you want to read more about the Befriending Partnership in Kirklees, read our blog:

Befriending Partnership

If you are interested in being a Telephone Befriender with full training and support please email: befriendingpartnership@yccuk.org.uk

If you, or someone you know, would like telephone befriending support please let us know via our Covid-19 Community Response online form, or call our Freephone helpline: 0800 4561114.


Let's talk loneliness
Loneliness Awareness Week

Loneliness Awareness Week is about encouraging people to speak about it openly and understand loneliness, one conversation at a time.

Let’s Talk Loneliness – Get involved

 

 

 


There are five organisations involved in the wider Befriending Partnership in Kirklees.

Yorkshire Children’s Centre

Age UK Calderdale & Kirklees

Royal Voluntary Service

Kirkwood Hospice

Locala

 

How the Befriending Partnership are connecting people during lockdown and beyond

Lady talking on a mobile phone sitting at home.

The Befriending Partnership are helping to tackle isolation through a telephone service set up to support older people and vulnerable adults, as part of the community response during the coronavirus lockdown.

Volunteers who give their time to the Befriending Partnership are matched with citizens who are known to the organisations as needing contact, to make sure they are okay in their homes and to help reduce feelings of isolation.

The telephone befriending service is led by Community Connections at the Yorkshire Children’s Centre and Age UK Calderdale & Kirklees.

We spoke to Christine Rhodes, Service Manager for Community Connections, about how people have been making connections and helping each other during lockdown.

“In the last few weeks we have seen our volunteer numbers grow to 90, and we have made 56 matches to those who need befriending phone calls. Our volunteers spend between 2 to 4 hours a week on calls with vulnerable or isolated people. We try and match people with similar interests and in the same local areas, with the hope they will carry on befriending afterwards, hopefully face to face.

“Of the 90 volunteers we have at the moment, around 35 have been forwarded from Kirklees Council’s call for volunteers and from staff that have been furloughed from elsewhere. The other volunteers have come in from all areas and walks of life.

“Referrals for the service come in from the Covid-19 Community Response team, from the community anchor organisations network and also now from the mutual aid groups who are doing brilliant work all over Kirklees.”

The volunteers not only phone people to have a friendly chat, but also receive training from the Befriending Partnership to help identify if someone needs other kinds of support. You can read Mark’s story on the Volunteering Kirklees blog to find out more about the experience for volunteers.

Christine told us that, until recently, one person was getting their shopping delivered. The volunteer identified that this had stopped and was able to feedback this information via a new app the Befriending Service are using. This resulted in a referral being made, making sure that the person received the essential supplies they needed.

The service continues to grow and more people are being welcomed to volunteer. We know there are many compassionate people in Kirklees who are keen to offer friendly phone calls to others. We’ve asked the people who have volunteered to offer this kind of support via our Covid-19 Community Response whether we can share their details with the Befriending Partnership.

We’re delighted to say that this has already resulted in a surge of new volunteers. Training is provided for all volunteers and enhanced ID checks are carried out routinely to make sure we are keeping vulnerable people safe.

“The Befriending Service is very important and is still growing. We know this is true of other support services too. We’re very supportive of the Mutual Aid Group network and the amazing work they’re doing too. It’s all about making sure vulnerable people don’t fall through the gaps and we’re doing all we can.

“I hope the volunteers signed up to the Befriending Service now, will continue to volunteer when we come out of the other side. And I hope those volunteering elsewhere in their communities continue as well.”

If you are interested in being a Telephone Befriender with full training and support please email: enquiries@ageukck.org.uk or call the team on 01422 252 040 for more information.

If you, or someone you know, would like telephone befriending support please let us know via our Covid-19 Community Response online form, or call our Freephone helpline: 0800 4561114.


Befriending Partnership members

Find out more about the Befriending Partnership

There are five organisations involved in the wider Befriending Partnership in Kirklees. During the Covid-19 Community Response, the specific telephone befriending service has been set up by the Yorkshire Children’s Centre and Age UK Calderdale & Kirklees. They are also working closely with the Royal Voluntary Service and some of the volunteers have been matched with people on their waiting lists too.

Yorkshire Children’s Centre

Age UK Calderdale & Kirklees

Royal Voluntary Service

Kirkwood Hospice

Locala