Engage

Reducing isolation and loneliness by developing positive relationships and networks in the community.

What we do

“…such a valuable service, just seeing someone once a week or so when we wouldn’t usually have much contact, my befriender has been such a support and a good friend.”

Engage works to alleviate loneliness and social isolation by recruiting, training and supporting volunteers to befriend isolated people in their community.

Engage currently runs two programmes:
Engage Befriending – enabling older people to overcome barriers to social connections through the support of a volunteer befriender.
Engage Wellbeing – enabling adults to make positive choices to maintain or improve emotional and mental wellbeing through the support of a volunteer befriender.

How to

Make a referral

Would someone you know benefit from a befriender?

Become a befriender

Could you volunteer a small amount of time to make a big difference?

Make a donation

Want to support our work through giving?

Last year…

We supported over 103 clients with 92 volunteers, providing 5,356 hours of support. 

96% of clients said they felt less isolated since being introduced to their befriender.

The Engage project is funded by a variety of organisations including:

Latest News

Our Impact Statement for 2022 – thank you to all those who have supported us

We are delighted to share with you our Impact Statement for 2022.  To read more click here. We could not ...

The Mustard Tree Foundation Impact Report for 2022

Engage is part of The Mustard Tree.  2022 was a busy year and we are excited to share that our impact ...

January 2023 newsletter – now available to download

The January newsletter from the Engage Befriending team has now been uploaded.  In this edition we have included dates for ...

Happy Christmas and a peace-filled new year

Please spare us a minute to watch our Christmas message by clicking here.Thank you for your support this year and ...