A SPECIAL Valentine's Day disco was held in Penrith to help foster connections for those with learning difficulties. 

Organised in a collaborative effort by My Community Penrith, the event at Penrith Conservative Club on February 10 sought to address a noticeable gap in local opportunities for people with autism and learning difficulties to socialise and meet potential partners or friends.

Cristina Bowman, from the project, hopes that the success of the event will pave the way for it to become a regular fixture in the calendar. 

"It was the first time we've done the Dating Disco. 

"My role at My Community Penrith is to speak to people in the community and find out what's good and bad and what we could be doing better.

"What came from it was that people wanted to be dating, making friends and just getting out more," she said. 

The project worked with Lancashire group Meet'n'Match ahead of the disco, which operates similar meet-and-greet functions, helping them with the tools going into the evening. 

"People with learning difficulties and autism are just the same as everyone else.

"They just need more opportunities to meet more people going forward.

"We're hoping this is just the start of a lot more regular events to come. 

"Someone's even said about getting a nightclub booked, coffee mornings and things like that. Everyone's got different likes, so it's about finding that match for everybody," Cristina said.  

The event was DJ'd by Cumbria's own Oli Cunningham, aka DJ Oli. 

Among the attendees were Rebecca Hall and Stephen Brazire.

"I think we should do it again because I really enjoyed it," Rebecca said. 

Going ahead, My Community Penrith is appealing for volunteers to get involved with the group so more events of this nature can be brought forward. 

If you are interested, you can visit https://www.facebook.com/MyCommunityPenrith for more details.