While most of us are locked down with our families, care home residents are locked down without their loved ones. Some are even staying in their bedrooms 24/7. They are also the group most likely to die from Covid-19, although we don’t want this mentioned in the letters.

Since the start of lockdown YOPEY has sent out over 2000 letters to over 200 care homes – but we need more!

The scheme is really very simple. Any young person, aged under 26, either handwrites a letter on a single side of paper or types a document up to 500 words. The handwritten letter is photographed (on a mobile will do) and the photo or the document, for typed letters, are emailed to [email protected].

The feedback we are getting from the care homes is that the residents love seeing photos of the young people so if the young person can attach up to 4 photos of themselves or their interest to the email that is much appreciated. But try to keep the email under 10mb.

Please include your address and phone number in the email but not in the letter. These are for the charity to contact you if necessary, and will be held until the end of the scheme. If you are aged under 16, we would ask you to give us the phone number of your parent or guardian rather than your own.

The letters tend to start Dear Resident or Dear Sir or Madam and include:

1. Why it is being written, eg ‘I have joined the charity YOPEY to help support you during lockdown’ to ‘I wanted you to know that even though young people outside your care home do not know you personally, we care about you and are thinking about you’.

2. Introduce yourself and say how old you are, and the town where you live, work or study (but not your full address).

3. What you liked to do before the pandemic?

4. What you are doing during the pandemic?

5. What or who you miss? Most young people mention their friends. If you wish to name a friend, use only their first name and how you know them, ie through school, club, uni, work etc.

6. Your hopes and plans for the future…

7. You can ask the elderly residents questions but these should be ‘open’ – ‘what did you used to do and enjoy?’ and ‘how do you keep occupied in the care home’ rather than ‘what job did you have?‘ and ‘do you play bingo?’

You can find more information and ideas on our Facebook page called

Young people help by writing letters to care home residents during pandemic

or

@IwanttohelpCareHomeResidents

We receive and send all letters via email to avoid transmitting the virus into new locations.

Our privacy notice is here

To take part in this scheme you do NOT have to be a YOPEY Befriender. Therefore do not register on our web app https://yopeybefriender.org