We held our first Volunteer Forum recently. We invited all our volunteers to attend as well as guest speakers from The Samaritans, LILY and Elements at the Manor. The Forum was held in the Parish Council Rooms in South Wootton as this was deemed to be a mid-point for all our volunteers.

The thinking behind holding the Forum was to find out from our volunteers if the support and training we give them enabled them to feel confident when providing our befriending service. The guest speakers pitched their talks to give advice on how our volunteers can provide the best quality of support to their client.

The Samaritans explained about the importance of “open” questions. This involves phrasing questions to the clients in a way that would need more than a yes or no answer and are useful for encouraging someone to express their thoughts and feelings. For example, instead of “Are you feeling well today” this could be phrased as “How are you feeling today?”. Using words such as “what”, “when”, “where” and “how” can encourage a client to be more open. They also showed us how to look for signs of how a client is feeling from their body language  and to use this in influencing the questions we ask.

Rebekah from LILY explained how LILY works in conjunction with the local council, WNB and other organisations. She explained that their website is a hub for local communities to find out about agencies and organisations who advertise their services and events. She talked about the changes they had implemented during Covid and how their aim is to reduce social isolation in all age groups.

Annette, owner of Elements at the Manor gave a talk on the importance of maintaining self-care and wellbeing. She described how it is essential for our volunteers to take time for themselves, to stay hydrated and to eat a balanced diet. She explained that if you look after yourself properly then you are more able to look after someone else better. She also showed us some simple exercises to help keep joints mobile and to reduce stress within our bodies. These exercises could be done in an armchair and would be suitable to be shown to our clients.

After the talks there was an opportunity to have discussions. Each table had a lead person who prompted questions that we designed to find out why our volunteers chose to work with WNB, whether they felt their training met their needs and expectations and what WNB could do to improve the support and advice that we give to them. There was some very interesting discussions and feedback which on the whole was very positive to read.

We ended the session with a delicious lunch provided by The Filling Station. The conversations continued and it was lovely to hear the chatter and buzz from everyone. The general opinion on the event was that everyone had enjoyed it and appreciated the time to be able to give some feedback.

We finished off our review by sending out an anonymous survey. We had a good response and the findings showed:

• Over 60% of participants prefer to learn in small groups and talking to other volunteers was the next most popular choice. A few prefer to learn on their own or by reading. E-learning was an option no one selected
• Our face to face volunteer meetings are at a time or on a day 75% of participants can’t make.
• 43% of respondents regularly come to face to face volunteer meetings and 26% occasionally come along, while 21% have never done so.
• 43% of participants have never joined a Zoom volunteer meeting, while 21% regularly do and 26% do occasionally.
• 67% of respondents say the Zoom meetings are on a day or time you can’t make, and 25% say you can’t use Zoom
• 100% of participants say our volunteer mailouts are useful! Volunteers enjoy being kept up to date, and the mailouts help them to feel part of the volunteer team. Adding some real life stories might be a worthwhile addition.
• Most of the volunteers who replied, nearly 44%, have volunteered with us for 1-5 years. 26% have volunteered 5-10 years and nearly 9% over 10 years.

The comments told us that it’s hard for many of our volunteers to find the time to come to a face to face meeting, however that for people who are able to attend its helpful to meet other volunteers and talk.

Zoom is something many of them don’t feel comfortable with or would need help to learn about and this puts them off.

Volunteers said that they enjoy giving back to the community and making a difference, that they enjoy meeting clients and they feel a sense of purpose about what they do. Volunteers were also very complimentary about the organisation.

If you would like to see the full results of the survey please drop us an email at info@wnbefriending.org.uk

Due to the Forum being such a success WNB are hoping this will become an annual event. This will enable us to keep evolving not just our services but the training and support we give to the volunteers who carry out the service.

St Nicholas’ Church in Dersingham held their annual Christmas Tree festival and coffee morning at the beginning of December. West Norfolk Befriending sponsored a tree which was kindly decorated by Jo Itter who made many of the decorations herself. The idea of the Festival is to promote the services of many local organisations and members of the public can view the trees and pick up leaflets and information about the services available.

There are many of these Christmas Tree Festivals around the county including one that was held at St John’s Church in Terrington St John. Another of our past volunteers, Margaret, kindly decorated a tree on our behalf and this was on display at the church for the public to view.

This is a lovely way to promote West Norfolk Befriending whilst adding to the festive cheer at the same time. Our thanks to the volunteers who kindly agreed to oversee the decorating.

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.

St Nicholas Church in Dersingham is holding their annual Christmas Tree Festival. A number of local organisations have been invited to sponsor and decorate a Christmas Tree. We were asked to take part again and our tree was decorated last Thursday and can now be viewed until the end of December. The Church held a coffee morning on Friday which was well attended and visitors were able to see the trees in all their glory. Our decorations were kindly made by Jo Itter – can you guess what they are made of?

West Norfolk Befriending held our first coffee morning at Downham Market Town Hall last Friday, 17th November. It was lovely to see so many new faces who came to have a cup of tea, a slice of homemade cake and a good chat. Our raffle was very popular thanks to some very generous donations from local businesses such as Barkers Bros, Morrisons and Tescos. We had great support from our volunteers who served up refreshments, spoke to the visitors and explained how our services work and the rewards they get from volunteering for WNB. We raised a total of £125.70 which will help to keep the charity’s services available to those most isolated in the local communities.

Trinity Rotary Club has donated £500 to West Norfolk Befriending.

John Hodson, Trinity President, said “The Club wants to help local charities with their fundraising. We know that they have more difficulty getting donations when many people are having to be careful with the cost of living. West Norfolk Befriending provides a vital service for older residents who are lonely or isolated so we are very happy to give a donation.  We hope that others will lend more support as well.”

Chief Executive of West Norfolk Befriending, Pippa May thanked Trinity Rotary for the donation. “This will help us fund the training of volunteer Befrienders and the running of this local organisation. Our aim is to reduce isolation, enhance the safety and quality of life, maintain independence and thereby improve physical and mental well-being of older people. We are always seeking volunteers, who will themselves gain much satisfaction from their involvement so please contact us via the Website or give us a call if you would like to help.”

We held our Annual General Meeting on Friday 28^th July at South Wootton Village Hall. Not only were the staff from West Norfolk Befriending and Board of Trustees present but we were finally able, after 3 years, to invite volunteers and clients. It was so lovely to go back to holding a summer celebration for everyone involved at WNB.

Alan Hayes, our chairman, gave a presentation on the progress WNB has made over the past year and expressed how delighted he was to see so much growth not only in the parishes we are covering which has gone from 23 to 35, but also in the number of clients we have been able to offer our services to. This has been possible thanks to a rise in the number of volunteers we have inducted over the past year. He also introduced our new Treasurer and Board member, Karl Jermyn, our accounts were approved and then the Board members were re-elected.

Pipa May, our CEO, thanked the staff, Board and volunteers for all their hard work. She said how lovely it was to finally be able to come together with some of our more mobile clients to see out the past year and welcome in the new financial year.

We had to say goodbye to two of our Board members. Jean McGuinness has been a member of the committee and volunteer for 9 years and has decided to step down from both positions. She has supported WNB in many ways from helping at our social events such as the coffee mornings and the Christmas Tree festival, as well as giving her time to befriend a number of clients over the years. We will be sorry to see her go but we have no doubt that she will continue to support us at our social events. We also said goodbye to Mike Carter Rowlands who has stepped down as a Board Member but will continue to volunteer as a Telephone Befriender. Our thanks to him for his support too.

Once the formalities were over, we were able to sit down for a delicious lunch of sandwiches, scones with jam and cream and cake. Plenty of tea and coffee were drunk and there was much chatter and laughter. It was a lovely opportunity to talk to our clients, some from past befriending and some current members.

We will be holding our AGM on Friday 28th July 11.30am at South Wootton Village Hall, PE30 3LJ. The AGM will start at 11.30 followed by lunch. This is an opportunity to meet the Trustees, Befrienders and some of our clients and hear more about the work West Norfolk Befriending does in our communities. Everyone is welcome to attend.

If you would like to attend, or are interested in becoming a Trustee, please contact the office on info@wnbefriending.org.uk

West Norfolk Befriending were invited to take part in the Community Champions Parade at the Royal Norfolk Show. Pippa May, our CEO, and Sheena Law, one of our longstanding volunteers went to represent everyone who works and supports WNB. 

Held as an acknowledgment of the Coronation of Their Majesties The King and Queen, and their commitment to supporting community cohesion and volunteering, it was a tribute to all community champions. The parade took place in the main arena and those representing the various charities and organisations were followed by a piped band. Lady Dannatt MBE, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk – who is also our patron – addressed the showground.

“I was incredibly proud of each and every Community Champion…as a county, we are indebted to the amazing number of people who give so much of their time to help others.” she said.

Pippa May said “It was wonderful to be part of the event attended by volunteers representing over 200 other organisations”.

A fantastic way to thank all those people who give up their time to help build our communities wellbeing.

We held our first coffee morning at Orchard Close, Dersingham on Tuesday 7th March. This is the first one for 3 years due to the pandemic. It was a smaller affair to our usual coffee events but a huge success. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces but also some new ones. We had a stalls selling, books, jigsaws, cakes and gifts. The raffle proved to be very popular with a large range of prizes. All the stalls had plenty of interest and the room was full of chatter and laughter. Plenty of coffee and tea was drunk and we had a number of enquiries about our service and volunteering.

We raised over £250 which was a fantastic amount and will help to keep our services on offer to our communities.