After the induction

We are currently undergoing some exciting changes with our Dementia Friends Champions role! We are changing the role to Dementia Friend Ambassador, giving our volunteers the opportunity to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s Society and inspire even more people. Click here for more information about the changes. Because of these changes, we are currently not taking any more registrations for Champions. Please check back to see when registrations will open for Ambassadors.

Once you have successfully completed an Ambassador induction you will be given a code that will give you access to resources and tools that will help you set up and run a Dementia Friends Information Session. You will receive support from your local Regional Support Officer (RSO), our monthly Ambassador e-newsletter, access to regional Facebook groups and webinars to attend.

You may not need to set up anything special to run a Dementia Friends Information Session. If you are already part of local networks, such as a book club or residents' association, then you could organise a Friends Information Session at one of your meetings or among a group of friends or at work. 

Here are some ideas from Dementia Friends Ambassadors about where they will run their information sessions:

• Coffee mornings, lunch clubs, knitting groups and book clubs.
• Tenants' associations and residents' groups.
• Social clubs.
• WI, Round Table, British Legion.
• Students unions.
• Schools and sixth form colleges.
• Cubs, Scouts, Brownies and Guides groups.
• Workplaces.
• At their places of worship.

We will provide resources on the website to help you to run a Friends Information Session, which will include PowerPoint presentations for those people who want to use them. But there will also be informal exercises, quiz sheets, suggestions for book club and reading sessions, bingo sheets, and sample talks. 

Wherever and however you choose to run a Friends Information Session you will need to post it on the Dementia Friends website so that we know about the Information Sessions that are being run. However, you are able to choose if you make this information public so that other people in your area wanting to be Dementia Friends can search for it and sign up to attend. If you would rather keep your Friends Information Session just for people that you already know then that is fine but please do still tell us about it by putting it on the website.

Read on to see if you are eligible to be a Dementia Friends Ambassador, or search for your nearest Ambassador induction course using the box on the right.