We did our annual visit to the lovely ladies of King’s Lynn Sugar Club. Once again they had lovingly made and decorated over 60 individual Christmas Cakes which they then donated to us to deliver to our clients. This beautiful gesture means a lot to our clients – this can sometimes be the only gift they receive at this time of year and goes a little way of passing on a bit of seasonal cheer.

We then held our Volunteer Christmas lunch which is a lovely chance to sit and catch up with some our amazing team of volunteers and share some food. We always have such a great time and it can get quite noisy with all the chatter and laughing. Our volunteers then take away the Christmas cakes to give to their client.

We will be celebrating Befriending Week 1-7 November and will be thanking all of our invaluable volunteer befrienders who give up a little of their time every fortnight to make a difference to the life of a socially isolated, elderly person. Befriending can make a real difference to the life of both our clients and our volunteers and the feedback we receive proves this. We are always happy to receive applications for new befrienders and in times like these, where donating financially isn’t always an option, donating the gift of time can be just as important.

We are delighted to have been awarded funding to explore wills and legacy fundraising at West Norfolk Befriending. This would be a new source of funding for us and would help to ensure the longevity of the charity. It would help the financial sustainability of our work supporting socially isolated older people.

Through this project we will work with a fundraising consultant, connect with local businesses and engage the community. Supported by Norfolk Community Foundation through Your Big Idea.

December is always a busy month for us here at West Norfolk Befriending. Here’s a little round up of what we’ve been up to for Christmas this year.

Thankyou to our super volunteer Dot and her grandson Ben who decorated our tree in the Dersingham Christmas Tree Festival – we love the homemade decorations and look at that star! The festival was at St Nicholas’ Church from 3rd to 23rd December.

We received 70 handmade & finely decorated Christmas cakes generously donated by our friends & supporters at King’s Lynn Sugarcraft Club. We have now personally delivered a cake and other goodies to each of our clients – it’s a huge job and one we love! There’s even more photos of the cakes in this Lynn News article.

We were delighted to be able to have a small Covid-safe volunteer meeting. It was lovely to see each other and celebrate a successful year of befriending. Our volunteers have been making doorstop deliveries to our clients. They received a christmas cake (donated by King’s Lynn Sugarcraft Club), packet of tea (donated by Morrisons King’s Lynn), mince pies, crackers and biscuits (donated by King’s Lynn Tesco), puzzle book, small tin of shortbread, pen and notepad from Lily.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2022.

We were delighted to be invited to take part in the Flower Festival at St. Nicholas Church in Dersingham. The theme was ‘Together Again’ which is very appropriate as we return to face to face befriending. Thankyou very much to our volunteers, Dot and Rita for coordinating the display and arranging the flowers.

This week it is volunteers week and an opportunity for us to say thankyou to our volunteers. Without our volunteers we wouldn’t be able to reduce the social isolation felt by older people in West Norfolk. This year has been a bit different…

• Our volunteers have embraced telephone befriending.
• Our admin volunteers have typed letters at home.
• We’ve had fun and learnt new things in our zoom volunteer meetings.
• New volunteers have joined us!
• We now have volunteers who live in Wales and Suffolk.
• It is now easier for people with jobs to volunteer with us. We partnered with Power Networks, have a volunteer who works at RAF Marham plus other volunteers making their phone calls in their lunch breaks.
• We needed more male befrienders and thanks to social media we found them!
• Our board of Trustees have also embraced zoom meetings and we found a new Treasurer via twitter.

If you’d like to find out more about volunteering with us, please get in touch.

We are starting a new and exciting project allowing us to increase the number of services we can offer socially isolated older people in West Norfolk.

Following a pilot project of telephone befriending last year we now successfully deliver this as a regular service. Our new pilot project is to set up and test email befriending to meet the needs of isolated people who are unable to use the telephone or would like to communicate via email.

We are working to expand the range of services we offer, ensuring the organisation’s future and a more holistic approach to helping ease isolation. Our future aim is to offer all of our clients a choice of face to face, telephone, email or digital befriending allowing us to help more clients and reduce our waiting times. If you would like more information about our work with clients please have a look at our What We Do page. If you would like more information about our Volunteering with us, please get in touch.

This pilot project is supported by the Norfolk Response & Recovery Fund awarded by the Norfolk Community Foundation.

We have delivered Easter Hampers to residents and staff at the four care homes that we work with as part of the Care Home Connectors project funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.

The hampers were made up of activity packs, a soft bunny, lots of chocolates and sunflowers. Local balloon company called Wonderland Balloons donated the cellophane and bows. Care homes are Goodwins Hall, Fridhem Rest Home, Burman House and Downham Grange.

The residents and staff alike were very happy to receive them. With care homes being closed for so long due to Covid -19 it was so nice to be able to visit them and bring a little joy, and sunshine. We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

In view of the anticipated new legal restrictions that are expected to come into force on Thursday 5th November, we sadly, must suspend all planned one-to-one befriending visits and home assessments.

This decision is necessary to ensure that WNB is fully compliant with the law but also is intended to ensure, as far as possible, the health and safety of everyone at West Norfolk Befriending.

As a result, and for the time being, all befriending will take place via telephone (or internet platforms whether possible) and all volunteer meetings will be held online. We know that this may have a negative impact on clients and volunteers, but pleased be assured that WNB will continue to operate and will offer support as/when it can, in line with these new restrictions.

All staff will be working from home, but the office phone will continue to be manned, Monday to Friday (9:30am to 4:00pm). If you need any support, or simply wish to chat please ring: 01553 763500. Outside of these hours our answer phone will take up any messages, and someone will get back to you as soon as possible,

The situation will be reviewed in line with Government guidance on 2nd December and we will keep you informed.

Alan Hayes, Chair of Trustees
Pippa May, CEO

Our local MP for North West Norfolk, James Wild, asked to visit us and find out more about what we do.

James said: “West Norfolk Befrienders is one of the brilliant local charities making a positive difference to our community. It was encouraging to hear how they have adapted to continue to support people during Covid-19 and by providing a listening ear helping give people a link to the outside world.” There’s more information about James’ visit on his website.