Befriending is a fantastic and rewarding way to make a real difference to the life of someone else. Apart from the personal satisfaction of helping someone, it is also an opportunity to enhance your own life experience and build new skills.

Befriending is a fantastic and rewarding way to make a real difference to the life of someone else. Apart from the personal satisfaction of helping someone, it is also an opportunity to enhance your own life experience and build new skills. Befrienders MUST have held a full driving licence for at least 2 years and have the use of a smoke free car. A minimum commitment of 1 year is needed to ensure these goals can be met. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a life limiting condition that currently affects around 1200 people in Scotland. The Butterfly Trust aspires to improving the quality of life for people affected by Cystic Fibrosis by providing support, promoting people's rights and helping them to live independently. Our befrienders offer one to one face-to-face support to a young person aged 8 to 18, who has Cystic Fibrosis. Young people living with this condition have a demanding daily treatment regime at home and sometimes experience limitations that can affect their confidence and ability to cope with the challenges of everyday living. They may also be socially isolated because of their condition. A befriender will meet with the young person for around 3 hours every 1 to 2 weeks, away from the home environment, to build a trusting one to one relationship. A session might simply be an opportunity to chat, eg over a snack or coffee, or may involve a specific activity such as sport or creative/arts. This will allow the young person space and a suitable environment to explore their feelings, discuss their fears, develop life skills and grow in the areas where they may be struggling. Desirable qualities required include good listening skills, patience and an adaptable attitude. Training and support is provided; and expenses reimbursed. After applying you will be asked to complete an application form and to meet with us for a short informal interview. Befrienders will then attend an induction event (expenses paid) and the trust will acquire PVG clearance on their behalf, before being paired up with an appropriate client in the Glasgow area, within a reasonable distance from your home.

Big Hearts Befrienders provides one-to-one befriending for children and young people aged 5-16 years either in kinship care or who are socially isolated within the city through supporting them to learn new skills and provide a social experience. Through the befriending relationship the child / young person and the befriender may touch on topics such as increasing self-esteem; dealing with worries; respect for others, with the main aim of building a trusting and reliable relationship with an adult and working towards set outcomes.

Give the gift of your time and become a volunteer mentor for young people. It could be life changing for you both! Would you like to support a young person on their journey to gaining new skills and experience, becoming more self-confident and achieving their goals? If the answer is yes, we would love to hear from you. Why mentoring? Mentoring is at the heart of what we do here at ProjectScotland and we offer every young person we support, the opportunity to be matched with a volunteer mentor. We are searching for people in Dundee who are able to offer one hour of their time once a week or fortnight for up to 12 months to help transform the life of someone else. The young people we work with all face different challenges in their lives such as; mental ill health, long term unemployment, low confidence and self esteem, care experienced, limited English communication skills due to being new to this country or disabilities. As a volunteer mentor, you could support your mentee with whatever is important to them. This could be: goal setting; identifying interests and strengths; confidence building; helping to establish a routine; support to explore job, training and further education opportunities; social connections; or just someone consistent to talk to and check in with to see how they are. The support you can offer is invaluable and can be life changing. How does it work? • Following recruitment, we provide training, support to join the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme, ongoing support, access to lots of resources and a wonderful community of mentors across the country to connect with, learn from and build friendships with. • you are matched to one young person and meet with them once a week or fortnight for around one hour • meetings can be face to face or virtual using email/telephone/video chat/WhatsApp. There is also an opportunity to do a mixture of the two which offers a flexible and accessible approach to this volunteering role in addition to the match itself. •matches can last from 3-12 months depending upon the relationship and the needs of the mentee What’s in it for you? • Help transform your mentee’s life • Develop communication and interpersonal skills e.g. coaching, motivating others, adaptability • Gain transferable skills and experience volunteering with disadvantaged people • Participate in regular support and training • Meet new people, connect and have fun! • Learn about yourself and gain a sense of achievement supporting others • Learn more about your community and the challenges that people can face If you are interested in this opportunity please email: alice.carbone@volunteeringmatters.org.uk We would love to hear from you! More info about ProjectScotland: ProjectScotland (now part of the Volunteering Matters Family of Brands) works with people (predominantly young people) across the country who are struggling to overcome challenges such as social isolation, mental health issues, low confidence and general uncertainty about their futures. By providing wrap around support and the chance to complete a voluntary placement with a local charity; not only can this enhance confidence and self-belief, but it gives that individual the opportunity to build on their skills and experience and potentially move on to a job, further education or training. Everyone we work with is also offered a volunteer mentor.