“The conversations and the quality of the people have kept me coming back to these calls. I have enjoyed is the diversity – there’s no division across community businesses, social enterprises, co-ops, etc." [tweet this]

“The people who have been attracted to this have been people who cross boundaries and borders, smart people, doers.

“On one session I got talking to Sian from Community Catalysts. Sian and I committed to join an action learning group and we turned up and had a really good conversation. The spirit and the nature of what we do it very complementary. We work directly with special enterprises and they work very much with the public sector. I suggested that we join forces, and combine our tools and resources with their site. 

“I have already had a conversation with their operations manager and we have talked about the possibility of working together in Rochdale, a borough that’s hard to crack.  

“Conversations don’t always flow that fast. It was great that Sian and I wanted to join the dots. I would still like to chat to her about her leadership style. I welcome her experience. She’s someone that I would warm to as a mentor.”

Nickala Torkington is the founder of Flourish Together, a social enterprise in Greater Manchester which supports women to create the change they see needed through peer learning, crowdsourcing, mentoring and investment.