Become a Befriender.

Befriending is our award-winning 6 to 9-months weekly support programme, recognised by NHS England’s National Integrated Personal Commissioning Team, where we match a service user with one of our highly trained and supervised befrienders. It is one of our most beloved services and is available to anyone affected by an eating disorder, including parents and carers.

Many of our befrienders have recovered from an eating disorder themselves or have cared for a loved one with an eating disorder, and we value the unique understanding of the recovery journey that this brings. For many of our service users this has been a lifeline during challenging times.

Could it be you?

If you have a good understanding of eating disorders and disordered eating, and share in our passion to support those affected, then we would love to hear from you.

Of course! Our volunteers come from many different experiences and backgrounds. Some have lived experience or have been a carer/support for a loved one, others have in-depth academic knowledge through their university course or have worked as professionals in mental health. We also provide extensive training in safeguarding, and our dedicated online training sessions on befriending will equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to support our service users.

Yes! We have many befrienders who work full time and various shift patterns. Befriending can be very flexible and can be adjusted according to your schedule, especially if you opt to support service users over email. All that we ask is that you volunteer between the hours of 7am and 7pm so we can ensure that there is support available to you from staff should you need it.

Initially, you would support one befriendee with either 1 video call per week or 1-2 emails per week. As you build your confidence, you may choose to take on multiple befriendees at the same time. We also ask you to attend a 1-hour supervision session every month, with a small group of your fellow volunteers, to ensure that you feel supported in your role. As the recruitment process can take up to 3 months, and we offer this service to our befriendees for up to 9 months, you would need to be able to commit to volunteering for at least 12 months.

At First Steps, the well-being of our volunteers is just as important to us as the wellbeing of our service users. Generally, ask that you have been in a good place in your recovery for around 1 year. We appreciate that recovery looks different for everyone, so if you’re feeling unsure about whether it’s the right time to apply, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Many of our befriendees struggle in recovery, and there may be setbacks and relapses. You may hear stories that are very similar to your own. The most important thing is that you feel confident in your ability to listen to these stories without them having a negative impact on your own recovery journey.

Once you’re signed up…

You will be matched with a befriendee based on your shared interests and experiences. Your role is to be a non-judgmental listening ear and to provide encouragement and support to help your befriendee

While your befriendee’s eating difficulties should be the focus of your conversations, we encourage you to talk about other things too, such as your befriendee’s hobbies, interests, aspirations, and general mental health.

Our befriending training sessions are highly interactive and will provide you with all the tools you need to support your befriendees

You will also complete e-learning modules in Safeguarding, Data Protection and GDPR.

Once you have started volunteering with us, you will also be able to access our CPD-accredited training modules, free of charge.

Our befriending service is open to anyone aged 12 and over who lives in the UK. It supports people with anorexia, ARFID, binge eating disorder, bulimia and OSFED. We recognise how difficult it can be to get a formal diagnosis, so we don’t require that our service users have this before starting support with us.

Befriender Application

We are recruiting for befrienders! If you’re looking for a volunteering role that makes a real difference to those in eating disorder recovery, we would love to hear from you.

Please check right for our upcoming application deadline and training dates. Training sessions take place online, over MS Teams, and you must be available to attend all of them.

  • Applications now closed

  • Deadline for Submissions: Next Submission date TBC

  • Befriending training dates: Training dates TBC

     

    Our Befriending Applications are now closed. Register your interest below to apply for other available volunteering opportunities.

Or email your queries to: info@firststepsed.co.uk

Here’s the latest blogs…

Here you’ll find service updates and announcements about befriending, as well as personal stories and other features from our community. For more stories and discussion visit our blog page. If you’re a befriender or a befriendee and want to share your story we’d love to hear from you.