About Us

Young and Free is a "buddying" service to help young disabled adults socialise with non-disabled peers.

Many young disabled people become socially isolated upon leaving school and college.  They find it difficult to access the job market and social activities unless they have the support of their non-disabled peers.  For some the isolation deepens through time and they can get very depressed.  It was this experience of loneliness that led a small group to take action and develop a befriending service for themselves and other young disabled adults.

None of us could have imagined what lay ahead for our small group of young disabled adults and their parents as they got together to set up the befriending service.  At the beginning it seemed so SIMPLE, all there was to do was to enrol their non-disabled peers in the idea and MAKE FRIENDS and have a GOOD TIME!  How naïve we were!  Everyone involved had little or no experience; so we were literally learning as we went along. 

Taking things one-step at a time and consulting with SCOPE, we got the backup we needed and have made great progress.  SCOPE has continuously given us advice, support and encouragement, together with taking on some of the really difficult tasks like the drafting of the constitution and publishing on our behalf our first newsletter.

We have steadily moved forward. There have been so many things to do before we could be up and running, things like forming a committee, drafting our mission statement and constitution, filling in the forms to apply for charitable status, applying for funds to support the befriending service and sorting out Police Checks through the Criminal Records Bureau.

We have had to find suitable Insurance, identify the young disabled people who would benefit from Y&F and advertise for volunteers.
It has been necessary to inform people and other organisations of our existence and meet up with organisations that could advise and give us support.
Some of us have been on training courses and we are all involved in making decisions and organising events for Y&F participants.
We were and still are on a steep learning curve, with fresh challenges arising every day.

We have found that group activities offer not only the opportunity to socialise but also are a great way of introducing new members and volunteers to one another.

We have been bowling, out for a meal at Pizza Express, have had a day out at Bristol Zoo, and have also attended a Verbal Presentation workshop.  We have had meetings with other groups and we have regular Committee Meetings where we all get together, discuss the business of Y&F and socialise.  

We are now looking forward to more of our members buddying up with volunteers and many more group social activities as we are drawing up a programme of events to take us through into the New Year.