Organisations across Oxfordshire: join the KEEN Buddies family!

 

Clubs, organisations, societies… join us as we strive towards an inclusive Oxfordshire, one friendship at a time! Now introducing our Community Challenge 2021!

 
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The Community Challenge… how many groups can we get working towards inclusion for disabled people?

…a drive towards an inclusive Oxfordshire! We want to bring community groups and organisations all across the county together around a common goal, getting young disabled people involved in their local communities. We are setting ourselves the challenge to get as many groups involved as possible!

With all the challenges of the past year, people with additional needs are more isolated than ever. KEEN Buddies wants to change this.

We can’t do this alone! We want you to join the buddies family… whether that is promoting ‘Community Buddies’ and encouraging young people you work with to sign up to be a buddy, or running exciting activities for buddies to come along to, we welcome all ideas for partnership! Examples & more info below.

What is KEEN Buddies?

KEEN Buddies is all about promoting inclusion in the community through friendship and social connection! People with additional needs (age 6-25) are paired with a volunteer ‘Buddy’ (age 16-30) and form a one-to-one connection based on their shared interests. Buddies meet up and do fun activities of their choice, for example joining a sports club together, going to the cinema, a nice walk, whatever they fancy! For the moment, all buddying is online, but we aren’t letting that stop the fun! Our buddies are having lots of fun virtually and we are putting plans in place ready for when things open back up.

 
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Ways to get involved!

  • Support us with recruitment and outreach! Play a key part in making KEEN Buddies sustainable for the future and bringing friendship and fun to even more young people with disabilities. Send out a poster, advertise the programme, encourage your members to sign up. We’ll send you our snazzy publicity pack.

  • Host an activity or event for KEEN Buddies to come along to, supporting our buddies to get involved in a wide range of activities they might not otherwise have access to. Sign up and we’ll arrange a call to discuss things further.

  • Welcome our buddies to events you are already running.

  • We are open to any other ideas you might have!

What’s in it for you?

  • Put your organisation on the map, quite literally! Sign up and you’ll be added to our map of KEEN Buddies partners, a network of brilliant clubs leading the way in inclusion!

  • Support to be more inclusive! Inclusion is at the top of everyone’s agenda, and we hope KEEN Buddies will allow more disabled young people to access mainstream services. Having that 1-1 support available will give someone with additional needs the support to access that club they’ve always wanted to.

    The challenge is now live, and we want to partner with you!

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Some examples of current partnerships…

  • GLAM - activity days & museum tours for buddies, getting more disabled people into the museums and gardens of Oxfordshire

  • Summertown Stars - supporting one of our buddies to take on a leadership role within the football club

  • Oxford Uni Hockey Club - running weekly, online, inclusive sessions for our buddies to get involved in

Sign up now!

Sign up below and we’ll be in touch. Sign up to support outreach and recruitment and we’ll send you our virtual publicity pack, including posters, photos, everything you might need…! Want to be involved in another capacity? Leave us an email or number and we’ll get in touch to hear your ideas and discuss exactly what will work.

We can’t wait to hear from you! :D

Guest UserKEEN Buddies, Highlights, volunteers, Community