Befriending

We are looking for volunteer befrienders to either call clients over the phone (Keeping in Touch) or face-to-face via the Home Visiting Service.

Our Keeping in Touch service is a free telephone befriending service where volunteers ring clients on a regular basis to help reduce their feelings of loneliness and isolation. As a ‘Keeping in Touch’ volunteer, you will make weekly or fortnightly phone calls to a client.  A regular friendly chat can make a huge difference to someone’s day.

Home Visiting volunteers provide companionship and support, and can be a real life-line to help people maintain independent living skills and social contacts.

Home Visitors may undertake a variety of tasks, ranging from visiting at home for a chat, reading to going out for a walk, non-essential shopping or day trips. Some volunteers help clients to continue with hobbies or find new ones, such as gardening or playing games.

Most visitors visit regularly either weekly or fortnightly for a couple of hours on a long-term basis. They are carefully matched with clients, taking interests, availability and location into account. Volunteers will usually visit clients in their own homes which can be anywhere within the City of York. MySight York will meet reasonable travel costs.

No previous experience of supporting people with sight loss is necessary as full training will be given. A friendly nature, empathy and an interest in people, especially older people, is a must. You would also be a good listener and have a non-judgemental attitude. Most importantly you must be ready to allow the client to make choices.

If you are interested in becoming one of our befrienders, please download the role description/s and application form on the Staff and Volunteer Vacancies page. Volunteers need to be over 18 and provide two references and a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check before training and an induction is provided.

To find out more, please contact Catherine Bamford on Catherine.bamford@mysightyork.org or telephone 01904 731122.

Befriending Client Monitoring Volunteer

The Befriending Client Monitoring volunteer’s role is to talk to clients to discuss how they are benefiting from having a volunteer befriender. For Keeping in Touch clients this will involve a phone call which can be done remotely. Calls will last approximately 15 minutes to 1 hour. For Home Visiting clients the volunteer will visit the client in their own home. All clients live within the City of York area and reasonable travel expenses will be paid.

If you are interested in becoming one of our befrienders, please download the role description/s and application form on the Staff and Volunteer Vacancies page. Volunteers need to be over 18 and provide two references and a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check before training and an induction is provided.

To find out more, please contact Catherine Bamford on Catherine.bamford@mysightyork.org or telephone 01904 731122.

Home Visiting

Our home visiting service is a free service which aims to enable visually impaired people to be as independent as possible. Home Visiting volunteers provide companionship and support, and can be a real life-line to help people maintain independent living skills and social contacts.

Volunteers may undertake a variety of tasks, ranging from visiting at home for a chat, reading to going out for a walk, shopping or day trips. Some volunteers help clients to continue with hobbies or find new ones, such as gardening or playing games.

Most visitors visit regularly either weekly or fortnightly for a couple of hours on a long-term basis. They are carefully matched with clients, taking interests, availability and location into account. Volunteers will usually visit clients in their own homes which can be anywhere within the City of York. MySight York will meet reasonable travel costs.

No previous experience of working with blind or partially sighted people is necessary as full training will be given. A friendly nature, empathy and an interest in people, especially older people, is a must. You would also be a good listener and have a non-judgemental attitude. Most importantly you must be ready to allow the client to make choices.

If you are interested, you will need to complete an application form and meet with the Volunteer Manager. We normally ask for two references and you’ll be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check before training and an induction is provided.

To find out more about home visiting, or if you think a home visitor could help you or someone you know, please contact Catherine Bamford on volunteermanager@mysightyork.org or telephone 01904 731122.

Fundraising
As a charity MySight York relies on donations and our fundraising volunteers are vital to our success. There are many ways that you can help, from organising your own one off event to helping with street collections, maintaining collection boxes and baking cakes!

There’s more information on all our fundraising opportunities on our Fundraising page. Or if you’d like to chat about ways you can help, please email hello@mysightyork.org or telephone 01904 636269.

Activities
Volunteers play an important role in our Activities and social groups, helping to set up the space, meeting and greeting members and supporting them to participate. You can find out more about the kinds of things we do here. For details of activities coming up in the next few weeks please click here.

For more information on how you can help please contact the activities team on hello@mysightyork.org or telephone 01904 731124.

For information on other volunteering opportunities or general volunteering matters, please contact Carol on Carol.Etherington@mysightyork.org or telephone 01904 731127.

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