Vibrant Communities, P&EI, East Ayrshire Council

We aim to support children, young people and families requiring the support of a befriender to facilitate and enable their involvement in a range of community based activities. All our referrals are received from Social Work and the wider Health and Social Care Partnership. We offer training, support and supervision to volunteer befrienders to support the children and young people and families to participate in a range of activities and to reduce social isolation. Additional Befriending Coordinator posts have seen our service develop to support families, children and young people affected by drug/alcohol substance misuse.

Information for volunteers

We recruit volunteers from all walks of life to support the children and young people in our communities. We recruit, train and support our volunteers in a variety of ways adopting a flexible and caring approach. After recruitment training and becoming part of the befriending service, volunteers are offered ongoing training through the wider Vibrant Communities and East Ayrshire Council training calendars. The support and supervision given to volunteers is done in a way to suit the volunteers. we value volunteers giving their time and dedication and celebrate this not only at Volunteer week and Befriending week but also with thank you events throughout the year. The experience you build as a volunteer can help progress onto future careers or even just new skills, we will also provide references for future applications etc.