Improving young lives with LinkMeUp Buddies
LinkMeUp is on a mission to support vulnerable people to lead their lives as they wish and to challenge barriers that prevent individual choice and fulfilment.
There has been an unmet need for appropriate assistance for young people wishing to go out, have fun, make friends and become more independent. LinkMeUp Buddies, “gives children and young people the opportunity to find someone who is close in age to them; offering friendship, fun and personalised support in equal measure”.
The average young person has a lot of freedom. The freedom to start living independently, to meet friends and to start new hobbies. For those with disabilities or special educational needs life can feel restricted. When you rely on others for support it can be hard to live the life you want to live.
Until now, finding someone to support a loved one has focused more on the skills required than the personality and interests of those involved. For those in need of support, this often has often meant spending time with someone they wouldn’t naturally choose to spend time with.
This is the problem LinkMeUp Buddies solves.
What is LinkMeUp Buddies?
LinkMeUp Buddies is a new service created to provide support for families and young people. The initiative was inspired by local families who were looking to find fun and appropriate assistance for young people and children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities.
Buddies launched in Greenwich, London this summer (2019) and has already received an overwhelmingly positive response. The project has already been extended in Greenwich for a further 12 months. And, if all goes well, hopes to include new boroughs soon.
“We were hopeful that the Buddies Scheme would take off like it has... there are some great friendships being built between the young people and their Buddies which is making a real difference to the lives of the young person and their family.”
What’s different about Buddies?
Buddies doesn’t just focus on skills and qualifications — interests and personality play an important part too. As an employer, you can be matched with a Buddy based on your specific personal criteria such as your age, hobbies and interests, availability, skills, experience, and more.
You choose if the person is the right ‘fit’ for you and your family. Sally continues, “the Buddies Scheme takes the stress away from families who may feel overwhelmed recruiting and vetting their own Buddies”.
As a Buddy, you get to spend time with someone who loves the same things you do and earn a living whilst helping someone live the life they want to live.
Projects like Buddies don’t always gain traction straight away.
Matching an employer and carer, or Buddy, is not always a simple process, which can make explaining how it works difficult, slowing recruitment of suitable carers. We have worked hard alongside the LinkMeUp team to help communicate the benefits of their incredible services.
Lou Swaine, Founder of (hug), said “this is one of those amazing projects which has been nothing short of inspiring to help bring to life. We have continually worked with the Vibrance team from LinkMeUp’s inception over five years ago, more recently helping communicate the Buddies message and build a brand that speaks to a younger generation.
From brand strategy, to content creation and digital marketing, we dug deep into the powerful message behind Buddies to create the campaign tagline ‘Make someone smile. Be a Buddy’ and to create an aspirational identity that beams positivity and strikes an emotional chord.”
As Buddies continues to grow and develop we’re already working with the LinkMeUp team on new and creative ways of engaging with their community and spreading the Buddies message far and wide.
It’s clear that this is a service with high demand, and now that that has been proven, there is no limit to how many towns and cities this service could be rolled out to and how many lives it could positively impact.
You can learn more about LinkMeUp Buddies on the LinkMeUp website: www.linkmeup.org.uk/buddies
You can also follow their journey on their social channels: @linkmeup_uk
