The No.1 Befriending Agency’s Digital Skills Project
Guest blog post by Jennifer Scott from The No.1 Befriending Agency
It is exciting times at The No.1 Befriending Agency - a social enterprise which aims to reduce social isolation and loneliness for older people in Glasgow through befriending. We have expanded throughout covid, implementing emergency actions and new approaches to tackle the growing isolation faced by many of our community. This includes extending the face-to-face befriending we originally offered into online and telephone services. And now we have a project that has many additional benefits for the volunteers who join us.
Through our Digital Communications project, we have opportunities for volunteers to develop in all areas of the organisation while actively supporting them towards holistic life achievements. Whether they want to get involved in an online group environment, or a one-to-one telephone befriending relationship with an older service user, we can build a skills development plan to make sure they get the most out of their time with us. Peer support and research roles within the organisation are also in place for volunteers who would rather be behind the scenes than have direct client contact. Each volunteer role will be carefully discussed with the individual to best fit the goals that they want to achieve during their time with us. We can also provide volunteers with digital equipment to join our events and ensure they have access to wider digital services. This project runs until the end of July 2022.
We welcome anyone who is from the BAME community, unemployed, disabled, a single parent, or older/younger people, who would like to build a skills development plan to increase their own skills while benefiting the community. The plan will be geared towards future employment or development within a key area of their community and there is also the opportunity to provide digital equipment, so we are keen to hear from people who do not already have the means to connect online. In addition, we can signpost individuals to digital training that will increase their connectivity in both the volunteering world and beyond.
At the online events, volunteers help people with technical difficulties, and lead activities that entertain our clients and get discussions flowing. An example of our volunteers supporting the wellbeing of our clients online include the creation of clay decorations in December, and we continue to look towards digital wellbeing - soon we will be running a workshop on Apps that can be used to artistically design photographs, as well as the CreativiTea series of workshops, which will work towards the communal outcome of creating a digital book of kindness and wellbeing through different mediums of creative expression. A number of volunteers are involved in different aspects of this and we can’t wait to see how it develops in the future.
Volunteers may feel isolated and want to help others in a similar position, or may just want the opportunity to build confidence in themselves and their abilities to communicate. Whatever their goals and aspirations, the space we can give them, and the benefits that they can get from meeting our clients, cannot be overstated, and the breadth of opportunities we have make it suitable for the entire cross-section of Glasgow residents. We would love to hear from any interested individual in the SEIN network, or from anyone who wishes to refer a potential volunteer to us.