Thank you for an incredible Befriending Week 2025!
7th November 2025
Befriending Week has come to a close for 2025 and we want to thank every single person who took part. You’ve helped to raise the profile of befriending, build community connections and help reach people in need of meaningful connection. This year’s Befriending Week theme was Collaboration and Partnerships and we’ve been blown away by the ways our network demonstrate time and time again the amazing things that happen when we work together. Thank you!
Here’s a roundup of some highlights from Befriending Week 2025…
The Befriending Week Cable Car Experience
We were delighted to work with our partners at Transport for London’s IFS Cloud Cable Car to offer a unique experience for befrienders, service users and staff. Visitors were paired with other ticket holders to have a great chat while soaring over the Thames and enjoy a spectacular view of London. Stay tuned for more pictures and audience feedback on our social channels!
Annual Conference and AGM
Our online Annual Conference and AGM took place on Wednesday 5 November and was attended by 113 delegates from across the UK. It was an inspiring day of talks and networking, including a keynotes speech from Katie Kelly of think tank New Local, who spoke about collaboration (including some amazing cultural references!)
We heard from Georgia at Age Connects Cardiff and the Vale about their volunteering and matching process, and Jan and Kirsten at Families First St Andrews, who spoke about creating positive endings. There were also some fascinating insights from our Quality Award panel, featuring Home Link Family Support, The Welcoming Association, Volunteer Glasgow, Shetland Befriending Scheme, Space @ The Broomhouse Hub, CACE and Age UK Merton.
Thank you to our presenters, panellists, board, staff and delegates for making it such a special event! You can watch the videos and presentations from our Annual Conference on our YouTube channel.
We also launched our 2026 Roadshow, which will visit Cardiff, London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Belfast, and Glasgow. Booking opens soon! Find out more about the 2026 Roadshow.
Being a Befriender
We were delighted to bring back our event for volunteers, Being a Befriender. On Thursday 6 November, attendees enjoyed connecting with other volunteer befrienders and learning about the impact of befriending and creating social connections.
It was really nice to meet everyone and get the chance to hear about people’s experiences with befriending.
– Being a Befriender attendee
New e-learning: Creating Social Connections
Each year, we like to launch a new resource to celebrate Befriending Week. For 2025, we released Creating Social Connections, a free e-learning module to help volunteers recognise the positive impact their volunteering has on the social health of the befriender and their befriending match.
Case studies
One of the highlights of Befriending Week is sharing case studies that demonstrate befriending in action and showcase the incredible work being done by our members. This year we featured case studies from Together Co, Bright Futures UK, Sightline, Bramber Bakehouse, ALONE, Vintage Vibes and The Befriending Scheme. Each case study is available as text or audio.
Guest blogs and podcasts
Thank you to our incredible partners who contributed to our Befriending Week content to share their insights on Collaboration and Partnerships for Befriending Week 2025. Head to our blog to read and listen to them in full.
Podcasts
- Collaboration and Community Voice with Rachel Nixseaman from Deciding Matters
- London Irish Centre’s Quality Award Journey with Caroline Hanks, Befriending Coordinator at the Centre
Guest blogs
- Building strength and belonging through LGBT+ connection from Rainbow Communities
- Building community connections through The Big Lunch from Grainne McCloskey at Eden Project Communities
- Keep hearing loss in mind this Befriending Week from Helen MacIntyre at Neighbourly Lab
Updates from Befriending Networks
Our team shared updates from recent collaborative projects at Befriending Networks:
- International perspectives on social connection and loneliness from our CEO Susan Hunter
- Chwe mis o Linking Lives Cymru / Six months of Linking Lives Cymru from Befriending Development Worker for Wales, Matt Youde
Political Recognition of Befriending Week in Scotland and Wales
We are delighted to have received political support to recognise the value of befriending and the importance of addressing the issue of loneliness in our communities.
Sarah Murphy MS, the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing gave a message of thanks to Befriending Networks, our members across Wales and the more than 1000 dedicated volunteers who give their time, compassion, and energy to support others in Wales through befriending. Read the bilingual message here.
The Scottish Parliament recognised Befriending Week 2025, with Emma Harper MSP presenting a motion to the Parliament which received cross-party support. You can read the motion and sector recognition here.
Kaukab Stewart MSP, Scottish Government Minister for Equalities acknowledged Befriending Week at her Advisory Group on Social Isolation and Loneliness, held on 4 November, and through a visit to befriending organisation SeeScape in Fife.
The online campaign
We’ve been blown away by the incredible engagement online throughout the campaign. Whether thanking volunteers, running celebration events, sharing impact reports and case studies, recruiting new befrienders, or sharing collaboration stories, you’ve made Befriending Week 2025 amazing! Befriending isn’t about numbers, but here are some stats from the campaign and lead-up that show how you’ve helped spread the word.
- 22,506 website views, including 6,879 directory views, 3,017 Befriending Week microsite views and 573 resource downloads
- Website visits from over 60 countries, on every continent (except Antarctica! 🐧)
- 21,643 impressions on LinkedIn, 22,484 views on Facebook and an estimated 3,000 impressions on our newest platform Bluesky
- Over 2,280 uses of #BefriendingWeek and 196 uses of #WythnosCyfeillio
- A feature on BBC Radio London (from 1 hour 26 seconds), as well as local news outlets across the UK
And a special shoutout to the incredible cakes of Befriending Week!
Thank you so much to everyone who took part in Befriending Week 2025. To keep up-to-date with the latest news about next year’s campaign, subscribe to our mailing list.
If you’re a befriending project who’s new to Befriending Networks, we’d love to welcome you to our network. Find out more about membership benefits here.
This blog is part of Befriending Week (1 – 7 November), the annual campaign to raise awareness about befriending and celebrate social connection. Find out more on our Befriending Week microsite.