

Let's make loneliness
a thing of the past
Who are we? Our Mission

We are Be The Silver Lining. We believe that a simple cup of coffee and a friendly conversation can make a world of difference to the quality of someone's life through the meaningful connection it provides.
'Our mission is to reduce loneliness among the elderly by connecting them with volunteer befrienders, who offer support and conversation during times of isolation.'
With your help and support, we believe we can make loneliness a thing of the past. Join us on our mission by becoming a volunteer befriender and providing friendship and conversation with us.
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Loneliness, why our cause matters

Loneliness is a large scale issue among the elderly in the UK. Studies show that over 1.2 million older people in the UK are chronically lonely, with many going days, if not weeks, without meaningful social interaction. This lack of connection can lead to severe health issues, including depression and physical decline.
At Be The Silver Lining, we aim to combat this by fostering connections over a simple, yet powerful, act: sharing a cup of coffee.
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By training members of the community as volunteer befrienders, offering in home and community befriending and by partnering with local cafes to host 1:1 Care Chair schemes we can provide meaningful connection and form friendships with those who need them most.
Be part of the solution. How you can help

Share our mission with friends, family, and on social media. Awareness is the first step to making a difference. Fundraising doesn't have to involve climbing a mountain- there are lots of fun and creative ways to help us in our cause! For some
fund-spiration email us at info@bethesilverlining.org.uk and we'll suggest some great fundraising ideas.
Your contributions can help us reach more elderly people and allow us to bring our support services into new areas so that we can make a wider impact on the community. Every donation, no matter how much, makes a huge difference to the quality of life we can provide to elderly people in Lincolnshire.
Do you manage a café? Why not adopt our Care Chair support service into your team? We can support you with training and mentoring so that you can embed a Befriender volunteer into your team so that we can see this amazing support service in as many cafés as possible

Give an hour of your week to have coffee with an elderly person. Your time and conversation can be a beacon of hope to someone who is struggling with loneliness. You can request a volunteer application form by emailing info@bethesilverlining.org.uk
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Why not host a coffee morning?
If you aren't able to commit regularly and join us as a volunteer, why not host a coffee morning in aid of our cause? Afternoon tea's are a fantastic way to help get people talking, and we'll support and guide you on how to start conversations with those who are shy, and struggle to engage as well in conversation as others.

Help us end loneliness. Partner with us

Do you run or work for a cafe local to Lincolnshire? We want to bring Care Chairs into as many cafe's as possible so that we can bring Befriending support services to those who are most in need of friendship.
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When you partner with us, our team of trained volunteers will work closely with you to provide you with training, mentoring and support so that you can adopt the role of a Befriending volunteer into your team.
Having a volunteer is a fantastic why to help provide work experience and opportunities to young professionals who want to upskill.
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By providing mentoring and training so that you can bring the role into practice as part of you team dynamic, you gain full control or how to run the Care Chair in the way that works best for your Café and business. Our team are always at the end of the phone to offer signposting support, mentoring and guidance so that you and your team are fully supported in the delivery of our Befriending schemes. Want to team up?

Connecting over coffee. How our mission begon

I've been working in the care industry for over 7 years and during my time as a carer I've noticed a significant portion of my work is directly focused on building friendships with people I'm supporting. This is often because of a lack of social connections and limited family members, or sometimes caused by relationship breakdowns. That's when I decided to trial our first Care Chair. We partnered with a local café in Grantham to see the impact of a weekly 1:1 Befriending drop in with a trained befriender over winter when we know that many people who are lonely find themselves to be particularly vulnerable.
Over 12 weeks we provided friendship, signposting and even gave 'secret Santa' gifts to help boost positivity within the community.
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Following the end of the Care Chair, we received feedback from the café's we partnered with telling us that for many weeks after, people came in asking after us in want of company.
At the end of our campaign I then submitted an application into the Nescafe Azera Limited Edition Tin Competition in collaboration with the Prince's Trust, due to their interlinking theme of 'Connecting over Coffee'. Using inspiration from the campaign I designed a piece of artwork on the theme of 'silver lining's' with emphasis on the message that we can all be a silver lining for someone else.
This message sparked an incredible vision on how we can work as a community to improve the wellbeing and quality of life for others struggling with loneliness.
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Be the Silver Lining is now working with stakeholders such as Nottingham Panther's, our local MP, Downtown, and local community champions in large scale retailers such as Morrison's and Asda to help bring the Care Chair scheme along with 1:1 Befriending support at home as a free support service to those who need it most. With your support, we can help improve the prospects of elderly people all across the UK.

