Age Cymru

Recruiting Volunteers

About Age Cymru

Friend in Need is a telephone friendship service designed specifically to support older people who feel alone, lonely and are isolated. The service was developed and launched in June 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The service today, offers a friendship call to any older person over 70 years of age in Wales who has registered with the service and been matched with a volunteer.
Each week one of our trained volunteers calls an older person who is feeling lonely and socially isolated. The older person is called at the same time and is engaged in conversation, providing company and a friendly voice.

Wales, CF24 5TG

Service Eligibility

If you’re aged 70 or over and live in Wales, you can register for a free friendship call from a trained and vetted volunteer by completing the registration form, or by phoning Age Cymru Advice on 0300 303 44 98, open Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm.

Friendship calls will be once a week at the same time, and are 30 minutes in length.

We’ll follow up your registration with a call up to a week after receiving your completed form. During this call we’ll find out more about you, and information for the matching process. Matching you with a volunteer may take a little so we will call you for a five minute check in once a week until you have a matched volunteer.

Information for Volunteers

You can find out more about this role, and register as a volunteer on the Volunteering Wales website. Once you have registered with Volunteering Wales, search on their website for ‘Friend in Need’ to find this volunteering opportunity.

Once you’ve registered on the Volunteering Wales website and applied for this opportunity, you’ll receive a volunteer interest form from the Friend in Need team at Age Cymru. By signing up to become a befriender, you’re helping reduce social isolation and loneliness in older people in our communities. You’ll call the person once a week, at the same time to offer a bit of company and check-in to make sure all is well. The call should last around 30 minutes.

We’re looking for people who can commit to befriending an older person for a period of time.

More Information

Age Groups

Older Adults (65+)

Themes

Older People

Regions

Country: Wales

Other Information

Type of Befriending: Distance befriending including telephone, video call, letter writing or other means

Who can refer: Self Referrals Accepted, Friends & Family Referrals Accepted, Professional Referrals Accepted