You do not need to know exactly which professional you need.
Sometimes all you know is that you need help. That should be enough to begin.
About Vila
It takes a village. We’re building one.
Starting a family brings a lot of new things. And, often, questions we do not immediately know where to turn to for help.
Vila was created to make that search simpler: a network of trusted professionals and services supporting families through pregnancy, postpartum, the early days with a baby and the different stages that follow.
We do not expect you to know exactly who you need before you come to us.
You can simply start by telling us what is going on.
Our story
Vila started in our home
We’re Afonso and Rita, and we have two children.
We are fortunate to have the support of our parents. But because they live some distance away, that spontaneous day-to-day help is not always close at hand — the kind you can rely on without much planning when something unexpected happens, you need a few hours of support, or it would simply help to have someone nearby.
So, particularly after our first child was born, we found ourselves searching for some of the services and professionals a family may need along the way.
The support exists. The hard part is finding it.
It is scattered across recommendations from friends, Google searches, WhatsApp groups, Instagram, someone who knows someone, and professionals who are not always easy to find, understand or compare.
The idea for Vila came one Sunday afternoon at home, while one of our children played and the other slept in the living room.
“What if there were one place where a family could find the support they need without having to search for everything on their own?”
Rita asked a simple question.
We knew the problem too well to let the idea go.
And that is where Vila began.
Our approach
We didn’t want to create just another list of contacts
Finding dozens of professionals on a platform does not necessarily solve the problem.
It can create another one.
01
Who should I choose?
02
Who can I trust?
03
Who is available?
04
What kind of professional actually makes sense for what I need?
That is why we decided to build Vila differently.
Rather than creating a marketplace where families have to browse dozens of profiles on their own, we want to begin by understanding what is happening and what kind of support might help.
From there, we look within the Vila network for professionals who make sense for that situation and present suitable options, taking into account factors such as the type of support needed, location and availability.
Technology can help us make this process faster and more efficient.
But we always want a human layer to remain at the heart of it.
What we are building
A network, not a catalogue
The name Vila was not chosen by accident.
Behind the expression “it takes a village to raise a child” is a simple idea: caring for a family was never meant to be an entirely individual task.
But families have changed.
We live further apart. Grandparents are not always nearby. Friends have lives and responsibilities of their own. Needs arise at different moments. And asking for help is not always easy.
Vila wants to rebuild a small part of that support network.
Not by replacing family, friends or community.
But by helping when that network is not enough.
Our priority
Trust before quantity
We do not want thousands of professionals simply so we can say we have thousands of professionals.
We want to build a network we can trust.
That is why every professional is verified by Vila before they can receive support requests.
We want to understand their experience, relevant training, the way they work and whether there is a good fit with what we expect from someone who becomes part of our network.
Naturally, the verification process is adapted to each profession.
What matters when assessing a pelvic health physiotherapist is not exactly the same as what matters for a doula, babysitter or in-home support professional.
The aim is not to create unnecessary barriers.
It is to understand who we are recommending when a family trusts us to help them.
Our professionals
We also want to care for those who care
A good network for families must also be a good network for the professionals who are part of it.
We want to build long-term relationships based on respect, clarity and trust.
That means clear support requests, the freedom to accept or decline each service, transparent communication, and a relationship where professionals are not simply another profile on a platform.
Because the quality of the support families receive also depends on how we treat the people providing it.
Our principles
A few things we believe
More choice does not always mean a better decision.
We would rather present a few suitable options than ask a family to browse dozens of profiles without really knowing what to look for.
Trust is built.
Through verification, experience, references where relevant, transparency and the relationship we develop with each professional.
The family always decides.
We can search, select and suggest. The final decision about who supports or enters a family’s home always belongs to them.
Those who care deserve to be cared for too.
We want Vila to be as respectful towards professionals as we want it to be useful to families.
Starting close to home
We’re starting in Porto
Vila is starting in Porto and the surrounding areas.
We want to begin close to home, genuinely get to know the professionals in our network and understand the needs of the families who come to us.
We would rather grow slowly with a network we trust than grow quickly with one we do not truly know.
In time, we hope Vila can reach more families and more places.
But we want to start well before we start big.
We’re here
Tell us what support you need
You do not need to know the name of the service.
You do not need to choose a professional.
Simply tell us what is happening, when you need support and where you are.
We’ll start from there.