Welcome to Gig Buddies Sydney
What is Gig Buddies?
There are three main parts to the Gig Buddies project.
1. Buddying
Building a one-on-one friendship between a participant and volunteer.
2. Events/Socials
Group social events run by the Gig Buddies team.
3. Volunteering
Catching up with a Gig Buddies participant once a month
Who is Gig Buddies for?
Who is it for?
A Gig Buddies participant is an adult (18 years and older) with mild to moderate learning disability and/or autism, who wants to make new friends and do fun stuff.
A Gig Buddies volunteer is someone who wants to expand their social circles, make friends, support a person with a disability and do fun things.
Buddying
How "Buddying" works
The Gig Buddies team matches and pairs a volunteer and an adult with a mild to moderate learning disability and/or autism.
Buddies are paired based on mutual interests - such as music tastes, sport and hobbies - and other factors such as location and age.
Once paired, buddies go out together once a month for a year (or longer).
Click here for FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions.
What do buddies do together?
Buddied-up participants and volunteers catch up once a month and choose the "gigs" they both want to go to together.
A "gig" is whatever you want it to be.
It can be...
opera, theatre, sport, bushwalking, bowling, movies, having dinner, playing pool, surfing, food markets, musical theatre, go cart racing, horse riding, dancing, video games, train spotting, mini golf etc...
click below to watch a video about the Gig buddies project
get involved...
Testimonials
roll over images below to see what people are saying about the Gig Buddies project.
Just being able to meet someone, where we didn’t have everything in common. It made our conversations exciting as we learnt more things from each other.
It’s been such a special, fulfilling time. Meeting Kieran has bettered me as a person and I learn things from him all the time. We have a lot of fun and it is drama free. Very refreshing when compared to other relationships/areas of life.
I love being with Maddie. It's been so much fun
for some more volunteer testimonials, click HERE for the Volunteer Vault
the NDIS
Gig Buddies and the NDIS
The Gig Buddies project is a not-for-profit initiative.
The standard monthly charge to support the project is 3 hours per month from Core Support or Capacity Building.
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Buddy Pairing (monthly catch-ups)
The monthly administration charge covers the process of pairing up gig buddies and ongoing support.
Paired gig buddies then catch up once a month for a year (or more).
(buddies pay for their own tickets, food and drinks when catching-up)
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Group Socials
The monthly charge also includes access to the many Gig Buddies hosted Group Socials
(*some hosted socials have additional charges)
the Gig Buddies project is user-led
Yasmin, Stavros, Lachlan, Joni, Nalyn, Alex, Jack, Audrey and Karen
The Soul Fly Buddies
(Gig Buddies' user-led advisory team)
We are an advisory group of participants set up to oversee and advise the Gig Buddies project. We catch up monthly and help shape the Gig Buddies project going forward.
more from Gig Buddies...
