• YOPEY is 'Creating Tomorrow's Great Citizens Today'. • YOPEY runs Befriender schemes where young people befriend lonely care homes residents, many living with dementia.
• YOPEY Befrienders take part in publicity to give the younger generation a fairer image in the media. • By doing this YOPEY improves relations between the generations, including reducing the elderly's fear of teenagers. It also reduces the stigma associated with dementia.
• YOPEY is supported by grants from charitable trusts and by care homes paying for their own YOPEY Befriender scheme. Other companies can sponsor schemes and be promoted in return.
• From 2005 to 2017 YOPEY ran over 80 Young People of the Year campaigns to give young people a fairer image in the media. Thousands of young people took part from charity fundraisers and youth leaders to young people who have turned their lives around – all being positive role models for the younger generation.
• All these campaigns and the positive press they generated are now archived on this website but can still be seen by the public and continue to promote the participants as positive role models.
Writing letters to elderly helps them to forget Covid & SMILE
DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC THE CHARITY YOPEY HAS SET UP A LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN WHERE YOPEY BEFRIENDERS – YOUNG PEOPLE WHO JOIN THIS CHARITY TO VISIT ELDERLY PEOPLE IN CARE HOMES NEAR THEIR SCHOOL – CAN EXCHANGE LETTERS WITH ELDERLY RESIDENTS IN CARE HOMES NATIONWIDE. THE YOUNG ALSO COMPILE ACTIVITIES, SUCH AS WORD SEARCHES, MAKE ARTWORKS AND FILM ENTERTAINING VIDEOS FOR THE ELDERLY TO ENJOY.
AT THE LAST COUNT, OUR YOUNG VOLUNTEERS WERE SUPPORTING THOUSANDS OF RESIDENTS IN 1800 CARE HOMES ACROSS THE UK!
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'My year as a YOPEY Befriender'
By Lloyd Frew, aged 18
For more stories from our YOPEY Dementia Befriender projects visit the Befriender sections of this website by clicking on links in the yellow box top right
"The YOPEY charity was set up to both to give the younger generation a fairer image in the media and encourage young people to regularly visit care home residents living with dementia. This 'intergenerational' scheme helps with improving relationships across the ages gap and is widely promoted by the organisers through...
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Bridging the generation gap
Teenagers make elderly friends – many with dementia
Photographs by Catherine Humphries, John Flynn and Tony Middleton
Teenager Kaylee Poloczek has a new ‘bezzy mate’ – 82-year-old Roy who she says ‘has done some cool stuff in his life’.
The 18-year-old met Roy at an old people’s day centre while taking part in a pioneering project uniting young and old people in friendship to help combat loneliness and isolation.
The ‘YOPEY
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Watch our first film specifically about YOPEY Befriender and the young people who volunteer to befriend lonely residents in care homes. Click on the film immediately below...
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• From 2005 to 2017 journalist Tony Gearing MBE ran over 80 Young People of the Year campaigns to give young people a fairer image in the media. Thousands of young people took part from charity fundraisers and youth leaders to young people who have turned their lives around – all being positive role models for the younger generation. The charity YOPEY did not come into existence until 2012, although it now shares responsibility for managing this website.
• All these campaigns and the positive press they generated are now archived on this
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Care trade press publicises YOPEY Befriender
Several publications in the media that serves the care home industry have published articles about YOPEY Befriender.
The Caring Times magazine gave YOPEY Befriender its front cover and ran a full-page feature inside. Care Home Management magazine ran a three-page feature.
Other care home trade press have published articles on their websites and in emails to subscribers.
YOPEY founder Tony Gearing and three teenage YOPEY Befrienders gave a presentation at the Care & Demenita Show at the NEC in October 2016 and this led to more publicity.
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UK leaders endorse YOPEY...
YOPEY has received endorsements from the leaders of many UK political parties.
The latest has come from Jeremy Corbyn, who was elected to lead the Labour Party by a lot of young people. He said about YOPEY: "I'd like to thank everyone involved for their dedication to their communities. The work you are undertaking locally is incredibly valuable. Thank you once again for all of the work you do."
Jeremy's predecessor Ed Miliband praised YOPEY when he was Opposition leader and even found time to judge the first London YOPEYs. Our
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