New on-demand course for volunteer befrienders
4th June 2025
This Volunteers’ Week, we’re excited to announce our new e-learning platform. Our first course, How to have your first conversation, is designed to help your volunteer befrienders feel more confident and get their match off to a positive start.
Our training courses are a fantastic way to onboard new staff, refresh existing skills and continuously improve the quality of your befriending service. We know that for many people, scheduling conflicts and limited capacity can make it hard to attend live training. We always aim to respond to the needs of our network, so we’re delighted to share our new e-learning platform with you!
You’ll be able to access these courses at any time, from any device, so you can plan your learning to suit your schedule.
Our first course, How to have your first conversation, is an interactive mini-course for volunteer befrienders and those who are new to befriending. In the course, we cover…
- Things to consider before you start
- Common topics to kick off the conversation
- Top tips for creating a positive befriending match
- Advice from volunteer coordinators
- Questions to reflect on after a conversation
This course is completely free and available to members and non-members, so please feel free to share the link with anyone who might be interested.
We’re also working away on several courses for befriending staff and trustees. Later this year, we’ll be launching…
- Running a Befriending Service – an introduction to the key aspects of running a befriending project to ensure you meet good practice in your project operations.
- Collaboration and Co-Design – a course to support you to co-deliver projects, submit a collaborative funding bid, develop partnerships or co-design elements of your project with stakeholders.
- Reducing Inappropriate Referrals – guidance on best practice for referral forms and screening procedures to reduce inappropriate referrals and protect staff capacity.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest releases and if you try out one of our courses, let us know what you think!
About Volunteers’ Week
Volunteers’ Week is an annual UK-wide campaign to celebrate and recognise the contributions of volunteers. The campaign highlights the diversity and unity of volunteer work across the UK. Visit their website for resources, volunteers stories and ways to get involved.