Wanted: Charity Initiative Seeks ‘Grandparents’ for Its Almost 100,000 Volunteers to Adopt

It s been three years since the UK entered lockdown amid the beginnings of the Covid-19 pandemic and since charity ‘Adopt a Grandparent began digitally pairing care home residents with volunteers to help combat loneliness and encourage meaningful intergenerational friendships

To mark National Day of Reflection today (March 23rd) the awardwinning charity is looking back at some of the highlights from its first three years and celebrating the amazing adoptive relationships formed across the world

A VOLLEY OF VOLUNTEERS

The call for ‘virtual volunteers’ was met with an astonishing response with 72 000 people signing up within 3 weeks from all over the world including from the US, Canada, Dubai, New Zealand and more

Starting life as an initiative within one care home group it s here that Adopt a Grandparent began looking for other care homes to take part, with far more volunteers than they could possibly pair up It also started on the path to become a fully independent charity

STAR-STUDDED SUPPORT

The charity saw worldwide attention once Hollywood star Ruby Rose signed-up to adopt her very own grandparent Becoming a valuable spokesperson, Ruby talked about her decision to volunteer and her adopted grandparent with American news outlet NBC: My grandparent is Iris and she s amazing – I speak to her every week It’s a fantastic initiative and it’s really simple I get as much out of the relationship as I was hoping I would bring to Iris

With interest from journalists across the UK and leading magazines such as Vogue and Shape it became clear that the initiative could really help people of all ages make meaningful connections and intergenerational friendships

Charity Status

Adopt a Grandparent became an official independent charity in 2022 and has gone on to sign-up almost 100 000 volunteers Appointing Andy Doherty as Director of Fundraising in February 2023 the charity is now on a major fundraising drive in order to help develop its app in support of bringing more care homes on board to match more older people with its growing ranks of ‘adopters’

The charity s founder Shaleeza Hasham comments It s been an incredible three years for Adopt a