New Ward Buddies Volunteer Training Programme

Aim

To create training so our volunteers deliver safer, more consistent care - directly benefiting babies, children, and families on the ward

Our story: 

Founder Jamie McDonald spent the first nine years of his life in and out of hospital, in therapy later in life, Jamie came to understand the deep impact his years in hospital had left on him: the loneliness, fear, and sense of abandonment that can take root when a child spends long stretches away from everything familiar. 

That understanding became his mission, leading to him setting world records for cycling, running across the USA, and winning the Pride of Britain Fundraiser of the Year in 2019, and culminating in him founding Ward Buddies. No child should go through what he went through alone. Ward Buddies exists to make sure they don't.

Why we need your help:

Trained volunteers deliver safer, more consistent care - directly benefiting babies, children, and families on the ward.

Currently operating without formal training in place, Ward Buddies will develop a reusable three-module programme with clinical input from hospital staff/clinicians.

The programme, once built, costs nothing to maintain and will be used to prepare every future volunteer Ward Buddies recruits, creating lasting impact.

The project:

We will design and deliver a structured volunteer training programme from scratch, covering three core modules: Patient Communication (including neonatal and paediatric contexts), Safeguarding, and Volunteer Wellbeing. Developed with clinical input from hospital staff. This will ensure our team of amazing volunteers are ready to support the children and families who need us. 

As we grow this training will be used with all of our volunteers, so is a key milestone in our growth as a charity, and of our mission to provide quality support when children and families need us most.

How your donation does more:

Thanks to the Mortgage Advice Bureau Foundation, every individual donation made on our Crowdfunder page will be tripled, which means your £10 donation would give £40 to Ward Buddies or a magic £25 donation generates £100 for our charity. The MAB foundation will continue to do so until it reaches £5000 in donations.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made