Volunteer role description

Befriending (Compeer) Volunteer

Organisation

Jami is a mental health charity that enriches and saves lives impacted by mental illness in the Jewish community.

Since the start of the pandemic, demand for our services has grown exponentially. In 2021 we undertook a thorough review of the needs of the community, to develop a new strategy that will secure the Jewish community’s mental health provision. The new strategy sets out a huge agenda for change in scale and provision, which will be developed over the next five years while we continue to run our diverse set of highly professional mental health services:

• Advice and advocacy

• Treatment and support

• Education and campaigning

The Role

Through a 1:1 match, you can help combine friendship with practical support to reduce loneliness and isolation and promote independence and recovery.

Support an individual to gain new skills and interests so they can move on and become more independent.

People often want to spent time with people their own age and gender to share experiences.  This role is looking for a male volunteer aged 20-35 to be matched with someone a similar age.

Examples of activities:

socialising, meeting in Jami Headroom café, coffee shops or cafes, help  with job searching, watch movies, draw, go to art galleries, watch football, swim, enjoy sports, play tennis, share interest in comics, films books, podcasts.

You can help your match develop their social goals and meet new people.

Compeer volunteers can help their match build confidence, self-esteem, and motivation to make positive steps towards better mental wellbeing.

You and your match will be supported by a Jami worker throughout.

The person

For this role you will need to:

• Have an interest in and awareness of mental health
• Have strong listening and communication skills
• Be reliable, trustworthy, and honest
• Have a caring and non-judgemental approach
• Be flexible
• Have a good understanding or willing to learn about some of the issues affecting the person you are matched with
•  Be male and aged 20-35 years old

We can offer you

·       Full and ongoing training

·       Flexible days and hours

·       Ongoing support, reviews, and supervision

·       Networking and social events

What we need

·       DBS check

·       Acceptable references

·       12-month commitment

We welcome applications from Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers and from across the full spectrum of the community.