Volunteer Centre Dorset receives many referrals to help Dorset Council residents who live alone and who would enjoy a visit or a telephone call from a friendly volunteer. People say they’d like support to form social connections, to share stories with others, to rediscover past interests, and to feel part of their local community again.
As a response to this need, we have created the Community Buddy opportunity.
Could you spare some time to visit someone in your community who is lonely, isolated, or lacking confidence to do the activities they love? This might look like:
- Telephoning someone to talk about a shared interest.
- Popping round to someone’s home for a cup of tea.
- Meeting someone near their home to go for a gentle walk locally, for example, a local greenspace, park or garden.
- Sitting with someone in their garden and taking part in a nature-based activity e.g. nature watching, or some light gardening such as planting seeds.
- Accompanying someone to initially try an outdoor activity e.g. a gardening club or walking group.
- Supporting someone to visit a local heritage site, for example a local museum, historic house or gallery.
The opportunity aims to support someone in their local area for up to six weeks, after which we will take on board your feedback as a volunteer and review the situation. There is no obligation to continue to support someone for the full six weeks if you feel it is not a good match.
If you think you would like to be Buddy, click on the link to apply or give us a call on 01305 269214 to find out more.
