It’s Befriending Week!
Befriending Week is the national campaign celebrating and raising awareness of befriending and the positive impact it has on individuals and communities.
The theme for Befriending Week 2025 is Collaboration and Partnership – we’d like to give a huge thank you to all of the young people, families, befrienders, communities and partner organisations who collaborate with us to provide our Young Persons Befriending Service!
All this week, we’ll be sharing stories that exemplify the powerful, positive impact of befriending. Take a look at a case study below, from one of our YPBS matches:
Lydia is a young person who has recently started high school, but has been with the service and matched with Befrienders since she was in primary school. She has recently been matched again, this time with Charli, who has just began volunteering as a Befriender with YPBS.
Since their first meeting, Charli and Lydia have got on so well, chatting away and getting to know each other. Even in the first month of their being matched, they have worked together to develop Lydia’s confidence and skills, all while having fun and exploring new activities.
At the outset of the match, Charli came up with creative ways to involve Lydia in the planning of activities, and to develop her reading and writing skills. One of their first activities was pottery painting, where Lydia got to show Charli her incredible art skills, and create a piece of pottery that could be a lasting reminder of the fun they had together.
Charli has also been supporting Lydia around money management, coming up with ways to slowly introduce her to managing budgets for befriending activities, and helping her to be able to order and pay for things on her own, using the befriending budget. Charli shows great care and consideration for Lydia, and clearly takes time to make sure their befriending match is one that balances learning important life skills with having fun. While they have only been matched for a short while, you would think they had known each other for years!
