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Family Information

Why are we here?

Caring for any child can be physically and emotionally demanding and caring for a child with additional needs increases the pressures a parent experiences.  Many disabled children experience discrimination and exclusion and many attend separate schools.  Many parents feel they are struggling alone to cope with tiredness, isolation and hurtful attitudes towards their child. Parents may also worry that they are unable to spend enough time with their other children and feel guilty that they are not doing enough.  Many parent carers are unable to work because of their caring responsibilities and have to cope with the additional pressure of managing on a reduced income.

What are our intentions?

Our volunteer befriending scheme is intended to give parents / carers a chance to have some time to relax, spend time with other siblings, get jobs done or do something for themselves.  We aim to provide a short break which supports the parent / carer to cope with continued caring. 

What do volunteers do?

Some volunteers go out with the whole family to enable them to enjoy a family outing together.  Some volunteers may stay in the family home with the disabled child while other family members go out.  A small number of volunteers are happy to do sitting in the evening so the parents / carers can go out for a meal etc.  Volunteers are not expected to undertake household tasks and are not allowed to give any kind of medication or undertake any medical procedure.  Also, volunteer befrienders are not allowed to undertake intimate care tasks.  Because we work 1:1 the service is very flexible and families make their own arrangements directly with the volunteer, taking into account what the volunteer is wiling to offer.  We do not expect volunteers to visit past midnight and do not cover overnight stays.  A reasonable expectation would be a few hours a week.

How long do they do it for?

It may take some time for us to find a suitable volunteer for a specific child.  For this reason we do not consider ourselves to be well placed to respond to crisis situations.  When recruiting we ask volunteers to commit to one year but we cannot guarantee how long they will stay and a link is not forever.  We have some volunteers who have been with their family for over 5 years and others may leave if their life situation changes.  Some volunteers become friends for life but although we do put a great deal of care into setting up compatible links, we have no way of predicting how long a specific link will last.

What about checks?

All our volunteers are CRB checked and we take up 2 references.  However, the final check is the parent and a volunteer will not be placed until they have met the family and the young person and their carer are happy with the link.  Ongoing support is offered by the co-ordinator who will monitor the link and deal with any difficulties which may arise.

Demand for our service is high and the level of our funding enables us to support up to 25 children in Bristol and 24 across Bath and N E Somerset.  Currently we are only funded to work with young people up to the age of 18 years old although we are seeking funding to cover young adults up to 25 years of age.  We have recently started to run some small social groups for teenagers.

Find out more

If you are interested in finding out more or would like to talk to the co-ordinator for your area please ring us on 0117 9415868 or email: info@time2share.org.uk

“My husband didn’t realize I’m volunteering. He just thought I’d become a friend of the family.”

Charity Registration Number: 1068862. Company Registration Number: 3424738      ©2005 time2share