Our Background
We Are Listening began its charitable operations early in 2024 and we are committed to providing an alternative befriending service to those elderly people who live alone and who have little contact with others.
They may feel socially excluded and our mission is to help relieve their isolation, assisting their integration back into society by providing a telephone and/or correspondence based befriending service.
We have three trustees, all of whom have experience in similar charity roles as trustees, operational directors and/or befriending volunteers and we are keen to grow our charity and service provision rapidly.
We are taking a different, novel approach to volunteer recruitment by establishing relationships with higher education establishments who have mature students wishing to gain work experience as part of their business or health care course.
Work placement or volunteering with the charity whilst unpaid, will provide valuable real-world experience and help students to make a great impression on potential employers as they embark on a professional career.
This approach benefits our charity and the volunteers. We are a small team committed to growing our services and volunteer recruitment is essential to our success.
Our Aim
Our aim is to provide support to the large and growing section of the UK elderly population who are living alone, isolated and feeling vulnerable.
Our Objectives
Our primary objective is to report positive changes in emotional and social wellbeing of our clients.
We have no time limit on the period over which a volunteer and client are matched as this will depend entirely on their personal circumstances and our geographic coverage will be across the UK.
Our secondary objective is to recruit mature students from higher education establishments as volunteer befrienders and work placements. This gives them social skills training, real world experience of interacting with clients and confidence in applying for career roles in social care, with an enhanced CV.
