During 2024 we have completed all the preliminary work needed to establish our charity. We have registered We Are Learning as a CIO with the Charity Commission (No. 1206228). We have banking facilities and insurance in place. We have developed a database to monitor all referrals, volunteers, programme operations, fundraising and costs. Our policies and procedures have been produced. A befriending training programme has been developed.

We now have a good working relationship with the Global Banking School (GBS) regarding mature student volunteers. GBS have some 30,000 students based at 9 different campuses in the UK and our focus is on volunteers from Business Studies and Health & Social Care courses.
We currently have volunteers being offered from GBS placement officers in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and London.

We have posted business development opportunities for website development, marketing and fundraising roles. Health & social care opportunities include contacting potential referrers within the NHS, GP surgeries, Hospices, local Councils, Care Homes etc. We have already taken applications for volunteering befrienders and training has been arranged. We believe the potential recruitment through this route could reach several hundreds of volunteers each year.