L-R: Jonathan Glen, Ranil Jayawardena, Jane Worlock. Photo: Jackie Lawton
Supported by 35 local organisations, Hook’s first Health and Wellbeing Event on Thursday 7th April was opened by Mr. Ranil Jayawardena MP. Chairman of Hampshire County Council, Cllr. Jonathan Glen also took time to meet the many organisations and volunteers that serve Hook and the surrounding area.
The community led event, supported by Hook Parish Council and funded by the Big Lottery Fund Grants for All initiative, was held at the new Hook Community Centre and created a networking hub for the day. Positive feedback from exhibitors was that it was great to meet up with so many other organisations in a day, to discover ways of working together, with a chance to publicise to Hook residents what organisations do and to recruit members for the various activities and services they offer.
Health and Wellbeing portfolio holder, Cllr. Jane Worlock, said, “It was wonderful to see so many organisations and volunteers under one roof, bringing the community together to talk about their activities, make new friends and discover new ideas.”
In addition to the stands in the main hall, training courses saw 26 people learning about life saving CPR and how the village’s defibrillators are accessed and used. Hook has a defibrillator in the village centre with another about to be provided in Hook Community Centre. Other courses included the Feldenkrais Method of movement and education, Spiritual Wellbeing, Digestive and Health Nutrition, Simple Cancer Prevention by Victoria’s Promise, Aspects of Hearing and an interactive session by Dementia Friends.
Supported and sponsored by Tescos, including free fruit and vegetables as part of Tescos Eat Happy Project, the Hook In Bloom volunteers provided refreshments all day and evening.
The event embraced recent research published by The New Economics Foundation, who assessed latest scientific evidence and created a simple set of actions to improve wellbeing in everyday life. The Five Ways to Wellbeing are:
- Connect
- Be Active
- Take Notice
- Keep Learning
- Give
It was using this criteria that the parish council identified that it could apply for financial support to help with the Health and Wellbeing Event, the expansion and production of the Health and Wellbeing Directory, support for the Hook Village Show on 11th September and help with publicising the Hook Taxi Bus, Hook Village Halls and Hook in Bloom.