Connecting seniors with caring neighbors.
By thoughtfully matching older adults with volunteers based on shared skills, passions, and life experiences, Barbara’s Buddies creates meaningful opportunities to feel purposeful and connected thereby enhancing wellbeing and reducing isolation.
Why we’re here.
Why we’re here.
Empowering Purposeful Lives Together
Meaningful connection and purpose are crucial to well-being at every stage of life, and particularly the later stages of life. As people age, opportunities to meet others with shared interests can become limited. Older adults possess a wealth of knowledge, skills, and lived experience that can profoundly benefit individuals, organizations, and communities. Barbara’s Buddies works to empower their sense of purpose and contribution. In the end, all individuals in the matched connection are “givers” and not just recipients. The connections made through Barbara’s Buddies support:
- Reduced loneliness and social isolation
- Improved emotional and mental well-being
- Greater sense of purpose and belonging
- Continued intellectual and social engagement
In the end, our work challenges ageist narratives and shifts cultural perceptions—recognizing older adults not as passive recipients of services, but as valued leaders, mentors, and contributors to community life. In doing so, we seek to build a more inclusive society that honors aging, celebrates experience, and fosters intergenerational respect.
How it works.
Share a little about yourself
The first step is to fill out a participant application so we can learn about your interests, skills, and hobbies; availability; and the ways you would like to volunteer.
Get matched with a participant
Barbara’s Buddies’ innovative match—based approach will foster authentic friendships and “shared-interest buddy” relationships.
Make a meaningful connection
Whether individuals connect over languages, art, music, careers, sports, or travel, or a learning experience, these relationships help build a sense of purpose and belonging.
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About the founders.
A friendship shaped by family, care, and shared experience.
Barbara’s Buddies was founded by longtime friends Debby Donick Cochran and Karen Appelbaum Gordon, both attorneys with nearly four decades of experience and a shared history of friendship. As their own mothers—both named Barbara and now in their late 80s—continued to seek ways to give back, share their talents, and stay connected to their communities, Debby and Karen saw something powerful: aging doesn’t diminish purpose.
Witnessing their mothers’ desire to contribute, teach, and stay engaged sparked the idea for Barbara’s Buddies. They envisioned a program that honors the wisdom, creativity, and lived experience older adults carry—and creates meaningful opportunities for them to share it. Their goal is to ensure that every older adult feels valued, purposeful, and connected through relationships built on shared interests and genuine friendship.
As they helped care for their aging mothers, both named Barbara, they experienced firsthand how challenging it can be to support loved ones who want to remain independent.
They saw how much a trusted, reliable presence could matter when family and friends are not always available. That experience became the foundation for Barbara’s Buddies—a program built on simple acts of kindness, genuine companionship, and the belief that no one should have to navigate aging alone.
Whether you’re interested in volunteering, supporting our programs, or simply learning more, reaching out is the first step. Barbara’s Buddies is built on connection, and every conversation helps strengthen the community we’re creating together.