Civil servant to help business to help others

Former Department for Work and Pensions programme manager Lesley Chronnell has been placed full-time as a business connector in the Pendle area to help community services tackle local issues

Her role is part of a £4.8m lottery funded scheme, run by charity Business in the Community, to enable the skills and talent from business to benefit local communities.

The scheme takes talented individuals from business and the Civil Service and places them in communities of greatest need, allowing them to use their time, networks and expertise to connect the needs of the community with local business resources.

Lesley has left her day job for 12 months to take up this unique role.

Speaking of her role, Lesley said: "I’m delighted to be the first business connector for Pendle District and am grateful to have the opportunity to undertake this role.

"I believe business has a vital role to play in supporting and working with the voluntary sector and am very much looking to forward to making a real difference to the local communities and individual people that live here, whilst tackling some of the social and economic issues in this region."

Stephen Howard, chief executive of Business in the Community, said: “Business Connectors is based on the proven impact of taking business resource, skills and time into the heart of communities where vital community services are under pressure to do more with less.

"Three years into the programme it is clear they are having a powerful impact, but there is still so much more to be done.

“We’re delighted that the DWP is placing Lesley Chronnell to work in Pendle.

"We hope others are inspired by the leadership shown by the Department for Work and Pensions and all the other organisations that support the programme, to also take a stand to build sustainable cohesive communities at this critical time.

"We look forward to working with Lesley and seeing the valuable connections we know she will make."