Age UK Waltham Forest has been running a befriending service for isolated older people in Waltham Forest for over 15 years. Currently there are 78 volunteers visiting a total of 83 older people.
Volunteers commit to visiting someone at least once a week for an hour or so, for at least 6 months.
Many volunteers make friendships that last for life.
We are currently unable to meet the demand for befriending in Chingford. We have 44 isolated older people who are waiting for a befriender. 25 of the people on our waiting list live in Chingford – that is 57% of our waiting list. That’s not surprising – out of all the older people aged over 80 in Waltham Forest, 41% of them live in Chingford. But unfortunately the spread of our volunteers across the Borough doesn’t match the distribution of older people: a third of our volunteers live in Chingford, a third in Walthamstow and a third in Leyton/Leytonstone.
Isolated older people in Chingford are having to wait for as much as 6 months before we can find them a befriender. We want to change that by finding more volunteer befrienders in Chingford.
We are looking to recruit volunteers, if you would be interested in volunteering please contact :
Emma Pajarillaga
Email: e.pajarillaga@ageukwalthamforest.org.uk
Tel: 020 8558 8716
Website: www.ageukwalthamforest.org.uk