‘Health & Wellbeing’ at the heart of Befriending Week

Reducing loneliness and social isolation

Befriending Week is a nation-wide event which celebrates the positive impact that befriending has on individuals and communities across Scotland. The event is held each year from 1-7 November and brings together befrienders, befriendees, charities and communities to raise awareness about befriending and shine a spotlight on the great work which has been achieved so far.

Health and Wellbeing as a central theme

This year, the central theme of Befriending Week is ‘Health and Wellbeing’. In its broadest sense, this places focus on the wider societal impact of befriending in bringing together communities and making steps to improve the mental and physical health of all members of society.

This theme also lets us focus on promoting the positive mental and physical health of our staff, organisations, communities and families.

Last but certainly not least, Befriending Week 2019 is a great opportunity for us to acknowledge all the fantastic benefits of befriending to the health and wellbeing of our befrienders and befriendees!

People Know How

At People Know How, we use a befriending approach across our projects and services, providing one-to-one support across the Edinburgh community.

Our befriending work began in our most established service, Positive Transitions, which supports children, young people, and their families across Edinburgh. One of its core projects is our Befriending project, which has since been awarded the Quality in Befriending Award. Based on this success, we have developed a befriending model to expand beyond our work with children and young people, across our services.

Our soon to be relaunched service, Reconnect, is where we aim to apply this model, to support adults across Edinburgh. In all of the projects within Reconnect, volunteers are closely matched with the people we support based on mutual interests and hobbies, to facilitate a great match!

So far, we have received great feedback from befriendees and befrienders across these projects. Individuals have reported feeling more confident, gaining a greater sense of responsibility and ultimately feeling a general improvement in their overall Health and Wellbeing.

Our befriending projects have positively impacted the lives of many across Edinburgh – both befrienders and befriendees! We’ll spend Befriending Week sharing these stories and spreading the word about our befriending projects in the local community!