There’s a place for everyone at Befriending Lewis & Harris

Befriending Lewis and Harris supports people over the age of 18, in all villages and communities right across the Isles of Lewis and Harris. Our service is not your average Befriending service, it is community led and it offers unique opportunities where often no opportunity currently exists.

The people we support include the elderly, people with mental health concerns, people with learning difficulties, Autism and Aspergers, people with neurological and life limiting conditions and physical disabilities, as well as people in recovery from addiction. There is no “one size fits all” with our service and we are adaptable to the needs of the people in our community. Our primary aim is to reduce loneliness, social isolation and social disadvantage and most often, the support we offer delivers a lot more.

Support for Now

During this period of social distancing, our face to face activities have ceased and instead we now provide vital telephone Befriending support to all our Befriendee’s all over the island. We also coordinate a task force of volunteers who are able deliver aid in the community which includes grocery shopping, medications collections, etc.

In addition to our telephone befriending service, to help people feel more connected and cared for at this time we have introduced a number of new initiatives for people who are not online;

• Welfare Packs offering practical help, useful contact numbers and various activities and competitions to help pass the time and help people feel part of the Befriending service even though they’re not able to attend any of our usual group activities, trips and events.

• Our Befriending Arts project has created a Postcard Connections programme where people are encouraged to create their own postcard artwork along with a message of hope.  Postcards are sent to other people in Befriending Services around the UK.

• We are launching a Jigsaw Puzzle Library service – “Keeping All the Pieces Together”.  People will benefit from a friendly volunteer dropping of a Jigsaw Puzzle from our library, once a month.  This is hoped to act as a point of stimulation and offer a sense of achievement as puzzles are completed and photos of which are added to our collage.

We find that these activities, even the act of sending us a photograph of their finished jigsaw puzzle, or sending us back a completed quiz sheet, gives people a small sense of purpose and inclusion during this very helpless and isolating time.

The Befriending Team are also working on a new Befriending Magazine which will hold lots of input from the people we support.  We believe that everyone has something important to contribute.

Our online offerings have been extended to include more Facebook pages which are open to everyone to view and join.

http://befriendinglewis.org.uk/ – our main website

https://www.facebook.com/befriendinglewis/ – our general Facebook page

Here you will find details of our two Facebook groups:

• Befriending Arts – sharing a variety of artistic and creative news and chat
• Befriending Books – a book review group which enables the sharing of literature and chat

Volunteers are our Strength

Befriending Lewis and Harris now has over 120 fantastic volunteers, of all ages, from all over the islands of Lewis and Harris and as far away as Edinburgh, Glasgow and even Bradford in England!

Volunteering for Befriending Lewis and Harris has lots of positive benefits like meeting and making new friends; being involved with fun and making memories; exciting trips and events; training and learning new skills etc. but most importantly the sense of personal satisfaction when seeing the positive effect they can have on the vulnerable people we support. We have witnessed numerous friendships blossom through Befriending which has been fantastic to see. Get in touch if you’d like to volunteer with us!

Get in touch

Please get in touch with us if you would like:

• To become a volunteer
• To refer someone to our service who you think might benefit from being involved with Befriending
• To be matched with a befriender yourself if you’re feeling lonely or socially isolated

Email us at info@befriendinglewis.org.uk

Call us on: 07496081902

Visit our website and Facebook pages! www.befriendinglewis.org.uk

Befriending Lewis and Harris has recently been awarded the highest accolade in UK Befriending, the Quality Award for Befriending Excellence. For many people, building trusting relationships can take a long time and we are particularly experienced in offering people a safe path in which to connect with others again, both during this period of crisis, and long term.