What has the pandemic been like for you?

Strong relationship-centred and person-centred support is at the heart of our work. From the offset we have sought to provide a pro-active response to the needs of scheme members and volunteers including pioneering new intergenerational befriending practices. Following the pandemic, as we move from the reactive phase in to a more long-term recovery phase, the voice of our beneficiaries continue to be important which is why in August 2020 we undertook surveys which were disseminated by the University of Sussex.

The aim of the surveys was to capture our scheme member and volunteer experiences of Covid-19 lockdown, the impact our service has had on them, and their ideas for service provision going forward so that we can plan for the future. Whilst the research findings are specific to Time to Talk Befriending, there are important findings that other organisations, Public Health, and policy makers might be able to consider, stimulating shared experiences and knowledge exchange. We have therefore shared a copy of the ‘Staying Together Recovering Together Covid-19 Research Report' here in case it is of interest.

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Feedback that we have received so far include comments from:

Morgan Vine

Head of Policy and Influencing at Independent Age

“Great piece of work. Really powerful”.

Kate Jopling

Policy and Strategy Consultant

“The report is really helpful and chimes very much with what I’ve heard from other organisations around the country. Great that you were able to pull the learning together like this – all helps to build the evidence base!”

Befriending Networks

Membership Organisation who awarded our accreditation of Excellence in Befriending following a quality assurance review.

“We think anyone working in befriending will be able to relate to the conclusions within the report”.

Robin Hewings

Programme Director at the Campaign to End Loneliness

“Thanks very much for sending us the report - it's really interesting to see how you are learning lessons from the pandemic and developing your service on the basis of such rigorous evaluation and review”.

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Has anything stood out to you that you would like to share? What are your thoughts and feedback about the report?

Gen in touch - info@tttb.org.uk