Social entrepreneur wins professional development training

Mel Nichols founded and runs two community organisations in inner city London, Chayses Boys’ Book Club and Chayses Pantry, alongside her job in legal and governance.

Chayses Boys’ Book Club aims to change the narrative around young black boys by providing educational support services to youngsters aged 10 to 16.

The club provides books, technology and educational trips to help inspire, increase literacy and enhance learning. As well as trips to museums, libraries and top-ranking universities, Mel is keen to raise the social, economic and career aspirations of young people and has organised visits to broadcaster ITV and global businesses such as Microsoft and Virgin Atlantic to create opportunities that may never have otherwise been afforded to them. Four of the boys from the book club completed a 9-month youth aviation programme and were given their first flying lessons at Denham Aerodrome.

Mel has also established a food assistance programme in response to the cost-of-living crisis and seeing people in her community struggling to feed their families with increasing food prices.

Chayses Pantry supplies and delivers free food parcels to single parents in South London, with the aim of alleviating food poverty in the community.

Both the book club and food bank aim to help people out of poverty and Mel was nominated for the Mayor of Lewisham Community Awards for her work with Chayses Pantry.

Mel successfully entered a competition run by Black Business Week to win a place on the IoD Certificate in Company Direction which aims to instil board level knowledge and skills through practical learning based on real-life scenarios and peer collaboration.

She is currently studying for her first exam and hopes to complete the remaining three modules in six months’ time.

Mel said: “I have the lived experience and understand the financial pressures of being a single parent working to pay my rent and nursery fees whilst attending university when my son was just 8 months old, and having overcome those hurdles, I wanted to help other single parents in my community.

“Both of my community companies started small but have gained traction and interest from larger organisations over the years and so I wanted to enhance my formal director skills.

“Winning a place on the IoD programme has provided me with a useful introduction to director’s duties, legal responsibilities and enhanced my existing knowledge of the role of the board in corporate governance and risk management.

“Prior to winning the competition, my knowledge of the IoD was very limited and, when I did find out about the organisation, I initially thought it was a quasi-private members club for white middle-class businessmen, but this changed when I visited and realised the personal development and networking opportunities available.

“These in turn are opportunities to develop and progress my community initiatives as well as my career in legal and governance.”

The IoD is supporting Black Business Week again this year. Running from 14-19 October, Black Business Week aims to equip black professionals and entrepreneurs with business insights, new skills and knowledge to navigate the world of work.