Porlock Vale Community Conversations Afternoon

Porlock Village hall held an inaugural community conversations and connections afternoon on Tuesday. The topic and theme of the day was on community resilience and creating a stronger Porlock Vale, with the focus on adult social care, signposting services and connecting people of all ages and enabling people to live well and for longer in their home and in the community.

Porlock Information Centre arranged the afternoon, specifically to launch their community questionnaire and the Good Neighbour Scheme, which links in with their ongoing development of the Community Café at Vale Yard in Porlock. The Information Centre Manager gave an update on the café project and outlined the next steps in how they will be expanding their services to the community.

Complementing the theme of the afternoon, were over twenty local and countywide business and charities who were invited to attend, including HomeStart, Village Agents, Minehead Dementia Group, Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership, Jan Rogers Counselling, Simpson Family Law, Little Fishes Nursery, Porlock Parish Council to list a few.

All of the organisations were able to offer their support to the community, whether it was on keeping warmer in the winter or maintaining body strength to stay mobile for longer. Guest speakers from Somerset Council, Wivey Cares and Spark Somerset shared their experience and knowledge in these areas and raised the importance of volunteering within local communities.

Information Centre Manager Deborah Stanyon said: “We were delighted to see so many members of our community come along this afternoon. This was a great networking and information event, which is at the heart of what Porlock Information Centre does. We have already been asked to organise more, which we will do once we have collated the results of the community questionnaire. The questionnaire is relevant to all living in Porlock Vale and we would ask that as many people fill the questionnaire in, either online or hard copy. Full details are available from Porlock Information Centre.”