Sightline Telephone Befriending Awarded National Lottery Funding!
Sightline logo – Telephone Befriending
In the last few days Sightline has received the amazing news that they are going to receive a grant from the National Lottery Reaching Communities Programme which will cover 65% of their total costs from April 2024 to March 2029.
Sightline is extremely grateful to the National Lottery for their fantastic on-going support.
The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will enable Sightline to continue their expansion programme to provide a telephone befriending service to any visually impaired person living in England and Wales.
Sightline’s telephone-based befriending service is designed to reduce loneliness and isolation in the visually impaired community. Regular phone-based befriending is arranged at a convenient time for both parties and allows volunteers to give their time from any location.
Ian Edwards, Charity Director“Sightline is currently supporting 140 visually impaired people with the help of just over 60 volunteers, many of whom are also visually impaired. Each person receives a weekly call, the average call time being around 40 minutes, although a few last well over an hour. The ever-increasing demand for our service, following the creation of closer working relationships with RNIB, Guide Dogs and many other sight loss charities, has created a need for more volunteers, so if you know anybody with a spare hour each week for a friendly chat from the comfort of their own home, then we’d love to hear from them.”
Have a listen to the reasons why Peter and Eleanor choose to volunteer with Sightline – Sightline Volunteer Voices – YouTube.
For more information about our telephone befriending service please visit the Sightline website or give the Sightline team a call on 0800 587 2252.
End
Join our mailing list
If you would like to receive regular news and updates about our work, then you can sign up to our mailing list.