Thank you

We wanted to say a massive THANK YOU for Folkestone and Hythe District Council’s donation towards our Good Neighbours Service.

The £500 members grant from Councillor Rebecca Shoob (pictured below) went towards the running of our befriending service in Folkestone.

Our befriending service matches older, vulnerable people to volunteers for companionship, reducing loneliness and social isolation. The benefits are huge to both volunteer and client.

Funding is an ongoing problem for this and other valuable community services. It’s constant! So, any money we get really does help run the service. We really appreciate this contribution, and we couldn’t run without the support of benefactors such as Folkestone and Hythe District Council. We greatly appreciate your support. Thank you!

Jessie Horvath (pictured) runs the Folkestone service and loves what she does, taking referrals from health professionals and relatives – and even self-referrals – visiting clients in their own homes to meet them, finding, recruiting and training volunteers and matching volunteers to clients. All this in 12 hours a week! Jessie is funded until October.

I love my job and love talking to the clients and volunteers. It’s a real privilege

Jessie Horvath.

Jessie checks in on the matches she made – including Kate and Frances, pictured below explaining the benefits of the service. We can’t explain it better ourselves – so over to Kate and Frances.

Kate bravely appeared on BBC Radio Kent  as “Hero of the Week” with Pat Marsh to talk about her volunteer role and the benefits it brings. She appeared on live radio at 8.50am on a Saturday morning! Thank you, Kate! Click the link and scroll to 2hrs 50 mins into the programme to listen.

We are looking for volunteers to match with people on the GNS waiting list in Folkestone for a befriender. Could you help?

Read more about the service HERE. Contact gns@kcv.org.uk, contact Jessie on 07821 663402, or leave a message for GNS on 01304 367898.