What People Say About Me
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"We have worked with Nicola and would like to continue to work with her because we find her to be energetic and passionate about finding better ways of doing things that significantly improve life for individuals within their community. She has the rare combined skill of having an innate business sense whilst also being able to think 'outside the box'. Her contacts and experience within the third and public sector are second to none. If we ask Nicola to get involved we know that her contribution will meet our high expectations."
Kate Whitmarsh Ewanrigg Local Trust Development Officer 
"Home to Work is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. We deliver support programmes to those hardest to reach in our community and we needed to know if we were delivering what we said we were doing and also providing our funders with value for money.
Nicola has been amazing, she talked the management team through the process of working out our 'social return value' then set to work. Several focus groups, questionnaires and a lot of honest and challenging reflection later we have a report that confirms we do 'what is says on the tin' and provides us with direction for the future. Nicola provided a professional service with regular updates on progress and opportunity to challenge her reporting. We were thrilled to hear that we currently provide more than triple the value of our current income but more importantly our beneficiaries really supported and appreciated what we do which for us was the most valuable outcome of the process. Thank you Nicola for being easy to work with and leading us through a complex but worthwhile piece of work. Lorraine (MD) Works 4 You Ltd 
"Nicola is a widely experienced business executive whose work to date has produced a highly effective and broadly based network reaching across the public, private and voluntary sectors. This body of contacts and knowledge has facilitated Nicola's work in developing successful partnerships promoting the growth of social capital and project revenues for companies across Cumbria. In my work with Nicola I have always been impressed by her ability to work through complex problems to find practical solutions. Nicola is an honest, realistic and pragmatic business professional whose friendly, supportive and approachable personality enhances her impressive strategic and operational abilities.
Patrick Everingham Past Chairman of West Cumbria PCT, Cumbria Police Commissioner and Chief Constable's Audit Committee and Mind in West Cumbria "Howgill has received great support and encouragement from Nicola. Her understanding of the needs of third sector organisations is second to none and she has proved to be a most effective partnership builder."
Patrick Leonard Chief Executive Officer Howgill 
"Nicola has been an excellent point of information and has been very proactive when we have needed issues to be addressed. She has been both professional and friendly and I would have no hesitation in working with her in the future."
Amanda Harrison Practice Education Facilitator Supporting Allerdale and Copeland Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 
"I have known Nicola Lynch for two years, during this time she has worked as Lakes College Partnership Officer. Nicola is a highly gifted and trusted colleague whose willingness to help develop and sustain local socially-useful initiatives has resulted in activity that extends way beyond her job description. In her association with Stay West (a project aimed at supporting people with learning disabilities in the community) Nicola helped initially by liaising with our prospective funder and polishing our bid application, she continues to work at securing the long-term future of the initiative. In addition to Nicola’s many areas of expertise in the broad area of managing complex and multi-stranded initiatives, I would like to cite her impeccable people skills and, above all, the passion and commitment she brings to the projects she believes in – projects furthering cohesive and successful communities, with a particular emphasis on supporting and giving confidence to local people."
Ian Mitchell Stay West Coordinator 
"I have known Nicola Lynch for more than eight years; as a governor at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School and as a fellow director of Mountain View Childcare. In this time I have found her to be a great supporter of and to both educational establishments.
In her work as a governor Nicola proved to be a conscientious, hard working member of the committee bringing her own career experience and expertise. Nicola’s personal skills and abilities proved invaluable in leading a governor working party in establishing a not for profit, Community Interest Company to provide wrap around care at St Joseph’s. As a director of MVC Nicola has applied for various grants to support the company, bringing in more than £60,000 grant funding. This she has done on a strictly voluntary basis bringing her own skill set and proficiencies to support MVC in the best way she can. In all my dealings with Nicola I have found her to be thoroughly trustworthy, entirely capable and professional; maintaining the required confidentiality of an educational setting. Nicola’s professional and voluntary work have given her a good understanding of the diverse needs of education establishments in these financially trying times. St Joseph’s School shall itself be employing Nicola in her free lance work to apply for grant funding to support our new school library. Nicola’s work ethic always has what is best for the organisation at the heart. She is not driven by money but by the need to provide support. Indeed it was Nicola who was keen to set up MVC as a Community Interest Company; providing for the needs of Cockermouth families, not just those of St Joseph’s and not as a profit making organisation but a high quality wrap around care and preschool facility. I whole heartedly recommend her to you and should you require any further confirmation of Nicola’s abilities please don’t hesitate to contact me." Teresa Readman Headteacher 
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"I have worked with Nicola Lynch for over a year. She is a greatly valued member of staff who demonstrates great commitment to the College, partners and potential students; working flexibility and innovatively for the benefit of all stakeholders. During this period I have received several compliments from key stakeholders who have highlighted the excellent support and service that Nicola has provided at both a strategic and operational level.
Nicola initiates and supports partnership working with a range of strategic partners from education, wider public sector, private sector and third sectors. Nicola has demonstrated that she is outcome focused e.g. securing funding, and can deliver outcomes which support the needs of all partners, often in complex and fluid environments." Karen Wilson Deputy Principal Finance and Corporate Services Executive Management Team 
"I really do want to thank you for all of your support since I came into this job in April. Your contacts and networks of people are invaluable. Your knowledge of local services is inspiring. Your commitment and care to the voluntary and community sector is outstanding."
Mrs Sam Wilkinson Key Strengths Worker Ewanrigg Community Centre "Distington Big Local has been up and running since 2014. Nicola has been a great support to us as we have been feeling our way forward. Being a very able person indeed, her knowledge and connections alongside a cheerful desire to see communities and individuals flourish is worth its weight in gold."
Alan Lowe Distington Big Local Development Worker 
"We are a small third sector organisation that supports unpaid carers in West Cumbria from ages 5 years and upwards. Nicola has worked in partnership with us to help support our organisation to deliver lots of cooking skills workshops from healthy eating, cooking on a budget, cooking for diabetics to cupcake baking for the adult carers and basic cooking skills for the young carers. As you can imagine for someone who perhaps has never been responsible for the cooking before to suddenly find themselves cooking all the meals in the house and even cooking for their diabetic spouse this could be incredibly stressful. The cooking workshops have been invaluable to the carers and they always gave really good feedback.
More recently Nicola has supported the young carers’ project to apply for two funding bids to large funders, one for working with young carers around healthy living and the other working with transitional carers around careers guidance and independent living. She has been extremely helpful and her knowledge of the third sector and community groups has been invaluable. I’m looking forward to working with Nicola further in the future if we manage to secure the funding we have applied for. Nicola is currently working on a project for the SROI of a project we have begun supporting young adult carers around further education and work." Michelle Watson Young Carers Project Manager 
"We have worked with Nicola on a range of projects and in different settings. I have always been very impressed by her energy, problem solving and practicality. Nicola brings a real empathy for the disadvantaged alongside an understanding of the needs of statutory and 3rd sector bodies to her work and an ability to work out practical, workable solutions to difficulties. Even more importantly she will put in extra effort to see a task through and done well. This package of attributes is something we value highly and she is a great asset to the area."
Michael Priestley Inspira Cumbria 
"I have worked very closely with Nicola on a wide range of Community projects for the past 18 months as a colleague within the Business and Community Team at Lakes College.
I know her to be dedicated to the communities and groups on whose behalf she works. She has extensive experience and technical skills required for her field of work including project and people management, comprehensive bid writing experience and strong research and engagement skills. She is very effective at using these skills to ensure that projects bring needed benefits to individuals within these communities. She is talented and experienced in supporting organisations with collaborative working. She will support you to forge new partnerships even where traditional or long held organisational boundaries have previously proved too difficult to cross. She is an ally in opening up new and sustainable opportunities for your organisation. As a colleague I have found her support to be invaluable and I value her insight, experience and knowledge." Angela McLaughlin Lakes College West Cumbria "I have known Nicola for twelve years, initially getting to know her and her daughter as a child care provider. Nicola is now a Director of our business, a Social Enterprise providing full day care for children from 2 - 11 years as a Community Interest Company.
Nicola stepped in to help us when the previous owner of the business suddenly decided she no longer wished to carry on. This was done without any hesitation as she was passionate about our setting being able to carry on providing the high level of care and education to our community. Nicola was fundamental in stabilising the business and enabling us to carry on at the time - keeping all eight members of staff in employment. Nicola continues to be a Director despite her own busy life. In my opinion, our business is highly successful due to Nicolas following characteristics –
Clare Child Pre-School Manager, Mountain View Childcare, Cockermouth 
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