Vintage Vibes is an award-winning charitable partnership based in Edinburgh that tackles loneliness and isolation in over 60s through 1 to 1 friendships with volunteers.

Vintage Vibes have spent the past 4 and half years creating over 10,000 hours of friendship across the city between volunteers (aged 18-92!) with over 60s (or VIPs as they are referred to), based on their shared interests.

They have seen a significant increase in demand in recent years, both in terms of referrals of harder to reach VIPs, and volunteering requests from those who might struggle to attend their face-to-face training and introductory sessions.

It takes a lot of time and resources to recruit, train and support volunteers and although Vintage Vibes have a strong retention record, they do lose out on some volunteer applicants who are unable to attend training sessions for personal reasons or logistical issues such as childcare, work commitments or travel arrangements.

The Challenge

Vintage Vibes’ challenge is to develop a digital training and communication platform that complements their face-to-face activity. They are looking for a solution that encompasses the positivity, inclusivity and sense of community involved in their existing work, adding real value to their volunteer experience.

A successful solution would enable Vintage Vibes to engage with a wider demographic of potential volunteers, and continue to build their volunteering community without staff and volunteers necessarily needing to be in the same location for meetings and training sessions. They would welcome applications from Challenge Respondents interested in developing a solution on a collaborative basis.

Applications for this Challenge Project are now closed. If you have any questions, please contact the creative informatics team at creativeinformatics@ed.ac.uk.