FAQs

GrandFriends helps older people and families in the same area connect with each other for support and friendship. It also acts as a meeting place for people online and for those who wish to get together in their local community.

If you’d like to find a GrandFriend or a family you first need to create a GrandFriends account.

Sign up here

Once you are verified on the site, you can browse and find your match and connect with them as well as accessing discussions and events.

To match with other members, you’ll need to reach out to connect with them on the platform first. You can do this by sending a member a direct message saying you’d like to get to know more about them. We recommend chatting online for a while before arranging to meet in person. When you do meet, choose a public place for your first meeting.

Because GrandFriends are involved with potentially vulnerable people (children and older people), we have a responsibility to make sure everyone using our site is genuine. 

To do this we ask everyone signing up as a GrandFriend to undergo a police check to ensure children’s safety.

We ask families to undertake their own Criminal Conviction History check and upload the results. This gives our older members peace of mind about who they are connecting with.

If you are signing up as a GrandFriend, we will complete a police check for you. You will need to provide:

• One photo ID - a driving licence, passport, Gold Card with photo

• One proof of address - a utility bill or bank statement

You can upload them to your GrandFriends account or email them to us. Our team will use these documents to carry out the required police check.

If you are signing up as a Family you will need to carry out a Criminal Conviction History check.

Apply for your report here

Once you have your report please upload it to your GrandFriends account or email it to us.

Please email anything to info@grandfriends.nz

That is such a tricky question to answer as it depends on so many things. It depends on who else is in your area, it depends on your preferences, your interests, your personal family values and ultimately if you get along in person once you have connected with someone.

If you don’t find a match straight away we encourage you to stay on the site and keep checking as we have new people signing up all the time. Depending on your ability to travel you could also consider looking for a match from a wider geographical area.

If you have the time and resources and there is more than one family/GrandFriend in your area willing to match with you, then yes you are welcome to match with more than one person. Please think carefully about whether you can devote the time to develop relationships with more than one family/GrandFriend.

If you don’t want to connect with anyone, then politely respond saying you don’t think they are a good fit for you. If you have any concerns about the behaviour of anyone on our members-only platform you can email us at info@grandfriends.nz and we’ll look into it.

Find the member that you want to message and click on view details on their profile. You can view their profile information and then click on Send Message to send them a direct message.

Go to the Discussions tab and click Create New Discussion to start one. Fill in your title and what you want to talk about and then click Create Discussion. To join in a discussion, hit Reply, or click on the title to see what other people have been saying and then add your comment in the box at the bottom of the page.