Make a referral

Would someone you know benefit from a befriender?

Referral criteria

Do they feel lonely or isolated and need a home visit/regular telephone call  or support to access community facilities?
Do they have the capacity to engage in conversation and interaction with a befriender?
Are they aware that you are making this referral?
Do they live in Reading Borough?

Referral guidelines

Whilst we do not want to turn any person away, we are not medical specialist and or trained counsellors, we are a team of volunteers and staff who want to befriend and support those who we can.

We are happy to support those who:

  • Live alone and need company (aged from 26 years upwards for Engage Wellbeing and 55 years plus for Engage Befriending).
  • Are isolated and need support to begin to take part in community activities.
  • Someone who has finished talking therapy and or wellbeing support.

We are not able to offer befriending to those who live in sheltered accommodation and residential care homes.  However, we would happily support people in those setting who might want training to befriend others in their community. 

We want to ensure that each person receives the best support so we will assess every referral.  We may signpost you to another organisation within our network of partnerships where they have specific programmes and support on offer.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Referral form

Please download our referral form and return to us either via email or post using the details provided.

For a PDF version, download here.

For a Word version, download here:

If you wish to refer yourself, that’s fine too… just use the same form.

What happens next?

Once we receive the referral form one of our co-ordinators will get in touch with the person you have referred and arrange to make an assessment visit. We will then match them with a volunteer befriender who lives nearby and, where possible, has similar interests.

Please Note

All our volunteers receive induction, safeguarding training, DBS checks and on-going support.

At the moment we are in the process of recruiting more volunteers so there is a waiting list.