Befriending
» Opportunities for Service » Befriending
Many of the community organisations in Arbroath have a need for volunteers to do one very simple thing - to be a friend to someone. This requires no special skills or experience, just a regular investment of a few hours of time, and yet it can make a huge difference in another person's life.
This Centre supports those who are caring for someone at home. Because of their caring commitments, carers can be tied to the home or find it difficult to maintain their regular social activities and to keep in contact with friends and relatives. To meet this need, the Centre offers a Sitter Service, where volunteers keep the cared for person company for a few hours on a regular basis, and the carer has a much needed respite from their responsibility. The Centre gives sitters full training and support, and match each sitter with an appropriate opportunity. For further information, contact June Dickson, the volunteer co-ordinator at Angus Carer's Centre, on 439-157.
We hear a lot these days about the problems of underage drinking, but rarely anything about another group of children and young people who are affected by alcohol abuse - those who live in a family where one or more of the adults has a drinking problem. Nearly 1 million UK children live with a parent whose drinking has reached harmful or risky levels - 85,000 of these live in Scotland.
The Hopscotch project was set up in 1997 to help these children and young people. It's a joint venture between the children's charity Barnardo's and various government agencies, and it operates throughout Angus and also in Perth and Kinross. Through one-to-one befriending, health education, family support and group work, Hopscotch helps these children to reclaim part of their lost childhood and gives them the opportunity to make positive choices.
Becoming a friend to one of these children or young people makes a life-changing difference to them. Befrienders spend a few hours each week or fortnight with a child or young person, doing something together that they both enjoy. Kicking a football around in the park, going to the movies - simple but positive recreation experiences with someone who is prepared to listen and give one-to-one attention is something that these children really benefit from.
Hopscotch provides training and support for befrienders and carefully matches
each volunteer with a compatible child or young person. Here are some of the
comments that children, parents and volunteers have made about the service:
"It gives me a break from my mum" (11 year old)
"My befriender is just for me" (10 year old)
"I wish there was Hopscotch for me when I was their age, growing up with
an alcoholic father"
"I give something of me and I get back a lot in return. It's really worthwhile"
If this bite-size opportunity for service appeals to you, please phone Colleen Gibb or Shirley Wright (873-146) or drop into the Hopscotch office at 269 High St (on the first floor) and have a chat about it.
HomeStart is the UK's leading family support organisation, established in more than 320 communities across the UK, including here in Arbroath. The Homestart Angus scheme was launched in 1994.
HomeStart provides trained parent volunteers to help any parent with at least one child under five who is finding it hard to cope. Volunteers provide emotional and practical support and friendship to families. This support can be enough to prevent things getting worse and so can possibly help avoid family breakdown or child abuse.
HomeStart volunteers visit families regularly, in their own homes, usually once a week for between two and four hours. The visits are flexible and the volunteer and family together decide when the visits should take place and how the time will be spent. Sometimes a parent may want someone to listen, someone to talk to about their concerns or problems or even just someone with whom to share an adult conversation! At another time they may want some more practical support such as help to play with the children or to get the family to the shops. Volunteers are not babysitters or home helps so any practical help is given as a friend would.
For many families, this simple type of support makes a world of difference. While HomeStart does not have a magic formula to take all the problems away, parents tell us that having a friend to confide in, to cry with, to laugh with, to talk to, can make all the difference.
It's not only families that benefit from Home-Start. Volunteers too tell us how their lives have been enriched by getting involved:
"I first heard about Home-Start some years ago. The work that they did really struck a chord. Motherhood had not always been the happy, fulfilling experience that I had read about and without my parents and in-laws I would have been desperate for a Home-Start volunteer! I applied and joined the preparation course for volunteers. It was great fun making new friends and voicing my views and opinions during discussions improved my confidence no end.
I did feel nervous meeting my first family, but as most volunteers discover, Jane [the scheme Organiser] has a wonderful ability to match us to the right family. When I look back on the reasons why the family wanted a volunteer I feel that mostly they wanted someone to care and be interested in their children and themselves, to encourage and support them and let them know that they were doing the right things. I know they found it very hard that neither set of parents showed any interest in their grandchildren. I spent three years as their volunteer. During that time there were many ups and downs, successes and disappointments but lots of fun. I like to think that I helped them, but I know that being with them helped me to move forward and I value the friendship that continues.
I am now with my second family. Their situation is quite different. With three children under four, two little girls and a new baby boy, Mum can do with an extra pair of hands and eyes! After only a few weeks I feel that Mum and I are good friends and I am truly touched by the gratitude and trust that is shown to me, which makes that whole experience very rewarding."
If you have parenting experience, a good listening ear and a sense of humour,
and you have 2-3 hours a week to give to a family in this way, Homestart Angus
would love to hear from you. If this might be an opportunity for service for
you, please contact Julie Thomson on 431-131 or take a look at their website
(www.homestartangus.org.uk).