Re-engage services are completely free. You will never be asked to pay money to attend a Re-engage tea party or gentle exercise group, and your Re-engage call companion will not ask you for money.

If someone does ask you to pay to use one of our services, please contact one of the Re-engage team as soon as possible by calling 0800 7240 0630.

If you’d like to join a tea party group, please fill in the short application form. If you need any help, you can call one of our friendly team on 0800 716 543.

If you would like to read more about what is involved in a tea party group, you can find more details here.

As soon as there is a space for you in a tea party group one of our friendly team will give you a call and ask you a few questions. There are no right or wrong answers, we’re just trying to make sure that our tea parties are right for you.

If our tea parties are right for you, we’ll send you a letter and ask your local tea party group coordinator to get in touch to tell you about the tea party and to plan your first visit.

Some tea party group coordinators will tell you everything you need to know about attending the tea party on the telephone and others may ask if they can visit you and talk face to face.

Our call companions offer friendship calls for older people who are lonely, isolated or in need of companionship. However, we do consider applications on a case-by-case basis, so if your circumstances are different to this but you feel that you would benefit from a call companion, please do get in touch.

We do require that you have a landline or mobile phone we can reach you on, that you can be understood and hear over the phone, and that you are able to commit to calls at an agreed time each week with your call companion.

1. You can apply for our call companion service by either completing an online application or over the phone with us. Online applications can be completed by yourself or by someone else on your behalf. Once you have applied, we will contact you to ask you a bit more about yourself, and then we will do our best to match you with a call companion we think you will get on with.

2. You can choose the day / time of when you receive the calls and how often you would like a call – weekly or fortnightly.

3. You can receive the phone calls for as long as you would like, and you never need to pay a penny for the service. If at any point you feel you no longer require the calls, you can contact your coordinator or give us a call on our freephone number 0800 716543.

Before finding a match for you we will ask you for your preferences. We can’t guarantee we will find someone who meets all of your given criteria but we will do our best to ensure you are comfortable with your match.

At Re-engage we ask all older people, volunteers and staff to provide contact details of someone who can be contacted in an emergency.

Your emergency contact can be anyone you choose, but should be someone you would want us to inform if you have an accident, become unwell or need immediate help.

Your emergency contact details will be stored within Re-engage’s secure database and will only be used in an emergency.

All current Covid advice including restrictions and vaccination programmes for across the UK can be found on our Covid page.

You’ll receive a letter telling you the name of your call companion and they will only call you at an agreed time. It is very unlikely to be the case, but if you get any calls outside of this time from someone claiming to be your new caller, it is important that you don't give any personal information and that you call us at Re-engage on 0800 716 543 so that we can look into it. If you are concerned about any scam at all, you can report it to the police.

If you are having problems with the service, for example you haven't been receiving calls from your call companion when expected, or you aren't getting on well with them, call us on 0800 716 543 and we will do what we can to find a resolution.

When and how often you receive your calls will be something that you’ll agree with your community Christmas call companion during your first call. Typically, you will receive one call a week which will last for around half an hour.

Yes, if you and your community Christmas call companion would both like to continue having regular chats, please let us know by calling 0800 716 543 or emailing us at knowledge@reengage.org.uk and we’ll simply move you across to our year-round call companion service. If your volunteer has other commitments and can’t carry on with the calls after December, we’ll find you another friendly volunteer to talk to.

No, your calls can be about anything that you’re happy to talk about.

Of course, we’d love it if you both want to continue your calls after December, but we understand that might not be the case for everyone.

If just one of you wants to carry on with calls after December, we’ll find another person for you to have regular chats with on a more permanent basis as part of our year-round telephone befriending service, call companions. 

Gentle exercise is a type of exercise that is suitable for people with reduced mobility. Each activity group is different and the types of exercises and activities that they take part in will vary depending upon what the guests enjoy.

Some activity groups enjoy playing skittles, carpet bowls or boccia, whilst others organise dance sessions and chair exercises.

The purpose of an activity group is to get people moving.