Our Love Your Neighbour programme needs you!

Please note: this post is 34 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only

Is your New Year’s resolution to make new friends? Would you like to feel more connected to your community, get to know your neighbours, or learn more about the area where you live? Maybe you’d just like to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and spend time with people whose paths you might not ordinarily cross. If this sounds like the sort of thing you’ve been looking for, then you might like to join Love Your Neighbour, our one-to-one friendship matching programme which brings younger and older people together to share company and conversation.

We know that the idea of signing up to a programme like this can be daunting, especially if it’s not something you’ve done before. To put your mind at ease, we asked some of the people already involved in the programme what advice they had for newcomers. Here’s what they said:

“There’s no need to be nervous, you’ll soon feel at home. We older people love younger people to come and spend time with us. We cherish them and we value them. I hope they feel at ease. It’s just like visiting a family member and they should know that they’re always wanted. It’s not always easy to try something new like this, but it’s worth it. I so look forward to Shelley coming to visit, she’s a member of the family now” - Theresa (77), matched with Shelley (29)

“One of the barriers you might be worried about with an older friend could be that you won’t have things to chat about, but very quickly you’ll realise that’s nothing to worry about. If anything, I’ve found that there are so many interesting topics that there’s often not enough time to cover everything!”

- Steph (30), matched with Roy (74)

“There's no reason to be nervous. I was nervous about being matched, because I didn’t think that South London Cares would be able to find someone for me, a young person who'd want to visit. Now look at Jade, she's come along and she's so lovely; she's got kind eyes. She talks to me and she lets me do the talking as well.” - Pat (82), matched with Jade (30)

“If I'm honest, I was surprised with how quickly the bond between myself and Tony grew. It’s amazing that something as simple as going for a walk each week or grabbing a coffee can give you such an opportunity to really open up, get to know each other and build trust and friendship. It doesn’t really feel like volunteering, it’s more like checking in with an old friend, catching up and looking out for each other.”

- Callum (30), matched with Tony (75)

If you're based in Southwark or Lambeth and would like to get involved, you can sign up here if you’re an older neighbour (over 65)* or here if you’re a younger neighbour. If you have any questions or would like to speak to us, you can email Eleanor ([email protected]) or call us on 0207 118 0404 (option 3). We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Please note: we currently have a number of older neighbours waiting to be matched in Lambeth, so it may take us longer than usual to get back to referrals in this area.