Crossroads Care Surrey

Volunteer as a Face-to-Face Befriender

Help support unpaid carers in your local area in their home

We provide support to unpaid carers across Surrey. For many of our carers this will be the first they have reached out for help. By becoming a Face-to-Face befriender, you’ll be working with both the carer and cared for client for up to 6 months or 35 hours.

Why become a Face-to-Face befriender volunteer?

• Receive high quality volunteer training
• Gain valuable skills in active listening
• Learn more about the caring process
• Support those who are isolated and lonely
• Become an active member of your local Surrey community

What skills do I need?

As a face-to-face befriender you will have general caring skill which include:

• Patience
• Listening skills
• Adaptability
• Discretion
• Honesty and reliability
• Confidentiality
• Sense of humour

Time commitment

We offer clients up to 6 month or 35 hours of support, usually made up of one-hour visits once a week and we normally ask you to see 2 or 3 clients at a time, initially starting with one. You’ll be able to hold visits at a time that works for you, whether that be during the day, early evening, or weekends.

Training and support

Every volunteer receives full training, irrespective of previous skill and knowledge, so you will feel fully prepared when you make your first visit.

Face to Face training

We hold one full day face to face training at locations across Surrey delivered by Volunteering team at Crossroads Care Surrey. This training includes explaining how we support carers across the county, what befriending is, preparing for your first visit and how the volunteering team will support you during your volunteering. This is followed up by online training for more in-depth learning.

On Going Support

All volunteers are assigned a volunteer coordinator to make sure they are supported in their role. We hold regular volunteer meetings once a quarter for an hour either online or face to face with your volunteer coordinator and other volunteers. Here you would be able to discuss how your volunteering is going, learn from other volunteers and celebrate successes.

Apply now (link to job train)

Crossroads Care Surrey is an established charity of over 30 years, offering a range of support services to carers and the people for whom they care.  We are committed to supporting people at an earlier stage in their care journey and recognise there can be a considerable length of time between a person needing some care and support periodically and them needing full time, round-the-clock care.

Community Support Volunteers will support Crossroads Care Surrey by providing the delivery of essential shopping for cared for people and carers that are struggling with the weekly shop or collecting prescriptions. With access to your own vehicle, you will receive requests made by the Community Support Co-ordinator to complete a shopping trip to help the people Crossroads Care Surrey support in your community.  

Befriending Volunteers will support befriending service to the people we support, enabling them to benefit from knowing there is someone there to listen, understand, be their friend and check in on their wellbeing. Calls could last anything from 10 minutes to half an hour and you will need to ensure that you can listen with understanding and patience and then respond appropriately.

Our Companion Volunteers provide visits upwards of 1 and a half hours.  Companionship visits are generally provided by our team of volunteers and are geared up towards people in the early stages of their caring journey, and their loved ones who do not – at this stage – require round-the-clock or specialist support.

We're also looking for new Trustee's to join us now, so if you're interested in supporting us in leading the development of respite services for carers in Surrey, please enquire through our website www.crossroadscaresurrey.org.uk

We are also always looking for people that are interested in other volunteering roles, including by offering support in care or club settings, in the community or in the head office.

If you are interested in becoming part of our Surrey wide team and being involved in providing support to your community, please email us at enquiries@crossroadscaresurrey.org.uk to request a volunteer pack.

We'd love to hear from you... if you have a good understanding of what it's like to be a carer and are looking to give something back through volunteering.