IHC launches exciting new digital friendship platform
IHC has launched an exciting new service that will be helpful to many families with Down syndrome, especially in the more remote parts of the country.
IHC has create a new volunteering role called, i-Volunteer, which is an extension of its existing volunteer friendships and our Volunteer Programme in where we connect people to form friendships and engage in their communities.
i-Volunteer is an digital version which links volunteers with people with intellectual disabilities, but the connection is online and by phone.
ICH has also extended the service to include family carers of someone with an intellectual disability, and that friendship is online and by phone as well.
The beauty of this new online volunteer role is that it allows IHC to target regions where it does not currently operate because they don’t have a Volunteer Coordinator on the ground.
The new service allows IHC to also target remote areas such as farming communities or the West Coast of the South Island.
I-Volunteer is all about shared interests and doing what each person enjoys and wants to do as a part of their friendship together.
Things that volunteers and their friends have talked about doing together are:
- trying a new recipe and cooking it together over zoom
- exercising and watching yoga YouTube videos together
- playing multi-player online games such as Animal Crossing or Minecraft
- knit or craft while on zoom or skype
- ‘visit’ zoos (for example logging onto the live webcam on the San Diego zoo website); or
- just chatting over the phone.
The initial interest among volunteers has been encouraging and has already resulted in several new i-Volunteers undergoing our orientation and training process in readiness for a friendship match.
Their interests range from travel, sports, learning Spanish, to video games, movies, creative writing and cooking and photography.
Their individual skills and experiences indicate they will be a committed and valued friend to a person with intellectual disability, or to a family carer of a person with intellectual disability.
IHC is looking for referrals from people who would like an online volunteer friend, so any families that might be interested please contact Belinda Donaldson at IHC 0800 442 311 or
