On Thursday 28 March at Station Seven, we held our 'Befriending Blether'. Roar befriends 59 older adults in Renfrewshire. The older adults are either visited once a
week, in person or telephoned by our fantastic volunteers. Our event was a thank you to both sides of the befriending coin. At Roar most of our other services involve older adults meeting each other at various venues. The people having our befriending service often are housebound or for a variety of reasons are unable to access their community. Befriending is such a crucial life line for many of them as the volunteer brings a new perspective of the world outside.
At our event, 11 of our befriendees were brought to Station Seven, either by their volunteer or family members, where we enjoyed a fun afternoon with music from a Roar connections club favourite- Aires and Graces, afternoon tea and of course, much blethering. The combined age of our service users who attended was .......988 years old. The eldest were 98!!
This fabulous event was put together by Mairi, our befriending facilitator here at Roar. She organised well-being boxes for all attendees, and sent ones out to the participants who couldn't attend. Mairi is passionate about connecting the community and works tirelessly to come up with ideas on how to get people connected and socialising. Keep your eyes peeled for her next venture...
Thanks to all that attended this event, to the volunteers who are the backbone of Roar, the befriendees and their family for coming along and making it a wonderful event, to our staff who cleared their diaries to attend (not forgetting Tracy with her trusty easter bunny costume!), and of course to Mairi for facilitating the whole thing. A great time was had by all. We look forward to the next one already!
