No. Gig Buddies Sydney is all about developing longterm friendships and expanding an individual’s social circles. Therefore, our matched buddies and volunteers are encouraged to catch up for a gig or event at least once a month for 12 months or longer*. Some paired-up buddies have been catching up for over 5 years!! 😀

The team at Gig Buddies Sydney interviews everyone who gets involved in the project. This enables us to make an informed decision about who to match with who. Music tastes, hobbies, personal interests, age, gender and locality are just some of the factors we take into consideration when matching buddies with volunteers.

The participant and volunteer will then be introduced to each other*, after which a staff member from the Gig Buddies Sydney team will join them on their first gig. Participants and volunteers are also offered ongoing support and advice from the Gig Buddies Sydney team. *volunteers must complete an NDIS Worker Check, an NDIS Worker Orientation Module, have two reference checks, and attend volunteer training.

That’s totally fine. If it doesn’t work out we’ll offer support to see if there’s something we can do - and that may include finding a new buddy.

Yes. Gig Buddies is a not-for-profit project. All monthly NDIS charges go towards running the project. Most of our group social events are free, and we only charge if there is a cost involved such as entry tickets, venue hire, transport. If a company donates or gives us discounted tickets, we pass on the savings to the participants and volunteers. (When buddies go to events with their volunteers outside of our group events, they pay for their own tickets.) The project is run by the registered charity Assisted Community Living Limited (trading as ACL Disability Services). ACL Disability Services is a not-for-profit organisation that was set up over 50 years ago to support adults with mild to moderate learning disability.