{"id":248,"date":"2021-11-23T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=248"},"modified":"2023-04-20T09:53:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:53:09","slug":"virtual-buddying-will-brighten-up-my-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/virtual-buddying-will-brighten-up-my-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Buddying will brighten up my winter \u2013 here\u2019s what it can do for you"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-intro\">The nights are drawing in and my winter coat has come out of hibernation. But, instead of dreading the dark autumn evenings, I\u2019m looking forward to them. This is all thanks to my role as a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/get-involved\/volunteering-with-sense\/volunteer-as-a-sense-virtual-buddy\/\">volunteer Buddy at Sense<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/bethanyhughes_volunteer-blog-scaled-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Bethany is a young woman with long blonde hair. She's wearing a white t-shirt and has a pair of glasses on.\" class=\"wp-image-249\"\/ style=\"object-position: 50.08% 21.10%;\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This winter, I\u2019ll be baking, crafting and getting in the Christmas spirits with Olivia, my fantastic buddy who is supported by Sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m Bethany. I\u2019ve been a volunteer for Sense for a number of years now, and I\u2019ve recently been nominated Volunteer of the Year for the upcoming Sense Awards. I feel so flattered \u2013 particularly as volunteering for Sense is fun and something I really enjoy doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Volunteering virtually<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When we went into lockdown last year, I started to look for other ways to volunteer, which is when I stumbled across the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/get-involved\/volunteering-with-sense\/volunteer-as-a-sense-virtual-buddy\/\">Sense Virtual Buddying service<\/a>. I was paired with Olivia, who is bubbly, creative and always great fun. I\u2019ve known her for almost a year now. We spend an hour together each week via zoom to chat and do something creative. It seems so strange that we\u2019ve never met in person because we\u2019ve struck up a really close bond. Olivia is non-verbal and uses Makaton and a communication book to communicate with us. This hasn\u2019t stopped us connecting and having loads of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, Olivia\u2019s mum helped with a few ideas of things to do in our sessions based on what Olivia likes. After a while, I started to think of some fun activities that would bring some new experiences to the table \u2013 for both myself and Olivia. We tried smell experiments, making a candle, making bath bombs, decorating a mug and loads more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Making time for yourself, while helping others<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Being part of Virtual Buddying is so worthwhile. It always cheers me up and was especially good for me during lockdown when I felt restless and a bit lonely. I know it will help me do just the same through the cold winter months. I love that we make time to create something, giggle, dance around, or chat each week!\u202f I feel privileged to have the chance to make these connections with other people, and I know that you will too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bethany has been a volunteer for Sense for a number of years now, and has recently been nominated Volunteer of the Year at the upcoming Sense Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[119],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-bethany"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}