14
NOTHING. I PROVED THEM WRONG’ LEADERS
LANCASHIRE ‘THEY TOLD ME I WAS GOOD FOR
By Ged Henderson
Amanda Meachin remembers word for word exactly what was said to her when she was expelled from school on her 16th birthday - it has been indelibly printed on her brain ever since.
It was blunt, cutting and incredibly cruel: “We no longer have to tolerate you Meachin, you’re good for nothing.”
She says: “I guess they had their reasons back then in 1982. I was a single mum at 14 and left home two years later with my toddler son.
“The odds on me being given any job, let alone being appointed a chief executive, were probably not great. Just to make it even tougher on myself I had my second son when I was 18.”
Amanda went on to prove her teachers and school very wrong. Working her way up from
nothing, she was appointed chief executive at Blackburn headquartered Community & Business Partners CIC (CBP) in 2004 and, as she points out: “That wasn’t bad for someone who at that point had never even sat an exam.”
Now, as she looks forward to her semi- retirement later this year, she reflects on a career which has seen CBP develop and grow into a respected business and community support organisation with an annual turnover of more than £1m.
CBP focuses on four specific areas of social impact - business, community, environment and skills. It has a specialist bank of 200 industry experts offering business support.
Its CSR work sees it rescue manufactured materials which would otherwise head to landfill and taking in surplus food. The
manufactured materials are then repurposed and sold on through an on-site scrap store to community groups, schools and individuals across the country. The food collected is supplied to local families in need.
It launched a membership offering in 2022 and reinvests all of its profits back into the community.
Amanda’s is a truly remarkable story of resilience and triumph over adversity. Both her parents died of alcoholism and her future was bleak when she was thrown out of school. Her soldier father Arthur had worked alongside the resistance during the Second World War preparing for the D-Day landings. As part of his cover, he had a family in a Belgian village.
After the war he planned to reunite with his Belgian wife in Barrowford, but tragically she
Building Towards
Lancashire 2050 8:30am – 1pm Thursday 28 September 2023 Blackpool Football Club
In association with Supported by Brought to you by
BOOK NOW #BEC23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
