News & Events

Nearly 30 people, including staff and members of the management committee, attended the Volunteer night out at The Joy of Taste restaurant, conveniently situated close to the BHL office in Church Street.

Heather ably organised the event, which was a huge success and enjoyed by everyone.  We were serenaded during the evening by a guitarist, and catered for by attentive staff and an award winning chef; the evening was bound to be a hit.  There were place settings, describing the virtues of volunteers, and sweetie bags for everyone!  As has become tradition, there was a ‘Safari Supper’ element to the meal, where dinner guests switch tables at each separate course.  This ensured an interesting evening where long serving volunteers and ‘newbie’s’ sat together sharing their experiences of befriending.  People from Nairn and Inverness face to face services blethered with distance volunteers from across the highlands.  The most asked question of the night was probably ‘..and how long have you been befriending for?’ and the answers varied from a few weeks to many years!

There was plenty of other lively conversation, and food was certainly a hot topic.  With delights such as sea bream, shoulder of beef, chocolate parfait, and panna cotta on the menu, there was much to delight in.  The other guests in the restaurant would have had no doubt that BHL volunteers are good conversationalists and know how to enjoy themselves!

In spite of the fact that two of the management team won raffle prizes, Heather has given assurances that the draw was not fixed!  Congratulations to the lucky winners.  Congratulations are also in order to Roly and Beccie who received their training certificates on the night.

Sally was active all evening taking lots of lovely photos, and a selection is included here, so that everyone can see what a good time was had by all.

A big thank you goes to all our volunteers, who do such sterling work, week in, week out, whether or not you were able to come to the night out.    We hope to see you all next year!

Please click on any image to see a bigger version.

From the end of May it has been full steam ahead as Debbie, Sam, Heather, Sally and Yvonne get used to the new challenges without a manager. Working closely together with the Directors and management Group it all seems to be going well so far.

Lots of changes from office layout, working hours to appointment systems for everyone to get used to. Not just the staff but volunteers and friends alike.

So as you can see it is all change and we hope you can bear with us while we settle in to the new systems.

The opening hours for both offices and services are listed below:

Inverness

Mon 09:00-17:00 Sam & Debbie

Tues 09.00-17:00 Heather (Phone cover)

Wed 10.00-16:00 Sam

Thurs 09.00-16:30 Sam & Debbie

Distance

Mon 09.00-17.00 Sally & Heather

Tues 09.00-17.00 Sally & Yvonne

Wed 09.00-1700 Yvonne & Heather

Thurs 09.00-17.00 Sally & Yvonne

Friday 09.00-17.00 Sally

Nairn

Tues 09.00-17.00 Heather

Thurs 09.00-17.00 Heather

In event of staff being at meetings or on holiday please listen to the answer phone and follow the message instructions.

Distance Befriending have been working with the CMHT Older Adults Team in Sutherland to develop a potential new service. The pilot project will investigate whether a distance befriending service will be successful for people who have dementia in its early stages. The pilot project is being launched at the beginning of April 2011 and will run for a year. The initial participants will be people living in Sutherland who have dementia in its early stages. Volunteers can, of course, be from anywhere. After analysing the results of the pilot it is hoped that its success will enable funding to be secured to offer the service Highland wide.

For more information please contact the Distance Befriending team or complete the form on the Contact us page.