Local charity, Camphill Village Trust, hosted its first Community Breakfast Club last week, where close to 40 people came together to share ideas and talk about what’s going on in and around the neighbourhoods of Stourbridge.

Councillor Nic Barlow opened the event where, after everyone had introduced themselves and spoken about their projects, Shared Lives showed a short film explaining their own scheme which allows households to open up their home and family networks to people who wish to live in the community, rather than residential or hospital care. Dean Barnshaw, Head of Service for CVT Shared Lives said:

"I’ve been attending a breakfast club over in Kates Hill for most of last year and I was struck by the passion of the local residents who really wanted to find out about their community and be more involved. So, I decided to adopt the format and develop something over here in Stourbridge and see what would happen after promoting it through social media.

"To have as many attend our first event is truly remarkable, especially as everyone has come from different parts of the local community and brought something to share and discuss. Initial feedback demonstrates that the breakfast club has been incredibly well received, we’ve had lots of positive comments and everybody is already asking when and where the next breakfast will be!

"It’s a great way of finding out what is going on and creating networks with people you wouldn’t normally get chance to have a chat with. I think the free bacon and sausage butties helped the event along as well!"

The charity intend to hold another Breakfast Club during the Summer, which they hope will be hosted by one of their local partners. To find out more about Shared Lives and the next Community Breakfast Club, you can visit cvt.org.uk/sharedlives or follow the charity on Twitter.