Age UK ran this project to help people get out of the house independently, by buddying them with a volunteer to accompany them while they regained their confidence.
It worked well for the for the people who were able to go out with their buddy, however the project found the older people they worked with had many more problems than simply their mobility. This meant they were not able to support as many people as they had set out to.
The Project needed to be very flexible around poor health or bad weather. This also caused complications in a project which involved a lot of volunteer help as many of the older volunteers also had complex lives.
One of the participants felt so good after regaining her confidence and getting out again she planned to start volunteering on another project.