The Conversation Starter Project was founded by Horsham psychologist Dr Tara Quinn-Cirillo in June 2021 offering free walk and talk sessions to help the local community during the COVID pandemic. Tara then partnered up with local mindfulness coach Shirley Blanch, who had been one of the original project volunteers and shared her vision of helping individuals become empowered over their health and wellbeing.
The project continued to evolve with new volunteers joining, and a second weekly ‘walk and talk’ session in Southwater was added.
The project was officially set up as a community interest company in August 2023 and continues to expand with Tara and Shirley now offering wellbeing training for the corporate and voluntary sector and collaborations with other local services including the MSK service who regularly send physios along to the Horsham walk.
