Eileen Marsh, a volunteer for the Link Visiting Scheme, regularly visits John Parker, an elderly resident in Winnersh.

 

The Mentoring and Befriending Foundation (MBF) has awarded “Approved Provider Standard” to The Link Visiting Scheme. With 120 volunteers offering friendship and support to isolated elderly people throughout Wokingham Borough, The Link Visiting Scheme has shown it is meeting the national standard for mentoring and befriending.

 

Mentoring and befriending is seen as an effective way of tackling social exclusion. For Marjie Walker, co-ordinator of The Link, the award proves that everybody involved in The Link is offering a high quality service. “We have worked so hard providing a lot of information about the quality of the service The Link offers and we are absolutely thrilled to have been awarded the “Approved Provider Standard.”

 

Maxine Grimshaw, Quality and Standards Co-ordinator at the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation said, “The volunteers are appropriately screened and are then given relevant training and guidance, a careful matching procedure is in operation and on-going support is provided once the relationships have begun.” MBF provides guidance and support to organisations and practitioners involved in mentoring and befriending.

 

If you are interested in improving the lives of elderly people, who are completely alone and do not speak face to face to another person for perhaps a week or more, please contact Marjie Walker at The Link Visiting Scheme on 0118 979 8019.

For more information, contact:

 

Marjie Walker

The Link Visiting Scheme