Councillor Natalie Nicholas - How DOES she do it all?

Although International Women's Month have finsihed, we at OBV continue to celebrate exceptional women. OBV speak exclusively to Councillor Natalie Nicholas from Picton Ward, a young mother and full time nurse, who is injecting new impetus from a BME perspective into Liverpudlian politics as one of only three minority members.

Hailing originally from the beautiful island of Trinidad, Natalie Nicholas is a proud member of what she refers to as the OBV “family”. Like many OBV graduates, she has gone on to continue to be both involved and advanced in civic life and cites OBV as the cornerstone upon which she has been able to build much of her success.

It was refreshing to speak to someone so entirely enthusiastic about what she does. She always wanted to be a councillor and since graduating from the Liverpool Councillor Shadowing Scheme in 2009, Nicholas after having twice lost an election by 250 votes is now, due to a tremendous sense of fortitude, a fully elected councillor. Nicholas says that she feels being a councillor is “everything” and that her life as it stands now is, cumulatively, her greatest achievement so far.

A single-mother of a young child, Nicholas has to tackle what is nowadays a common challenging dilemma; having to balance a burgeoning career against the constant demand of being a mother. Not that she complains, on the contrary, claiming that managing meetings and spending quality time with her child make her a more “holistic being”, though she readily admits that there have been occasions where she has felt discriminated against due to the fact she is a minority single mother.

She states that at times, she has been overlooked for certain opportunities, using this as an excuse for it as though her home life were some kind of disadvantage. She recounts feeling patronised by being told she was dismissed for certain prospects because of “how hard she has it” that therefore “she mightn’t be able” to fulfil the brief needed. She calls for greater support from the government for other women in her predicament, that greater measures need to be taken to ensure that everyone, regardless of their background, has equal opportunities.

She feels that being a single mother means that she has to work twice as hard as others, having to push herself forward or face being left behind. However Nicholas says she has no problem with challenging these situations as they arise for her personally and says it is largely due to all she learned in her time with OBV.

In her time on the shadowing scheme, as well as learning all that it entails being a councillor, she also learnt confidence and became more assertive, recognising her democratic right to challenge authority should she come across an injustice. Nicholas divulges that she would never have had the courage to, “disturb the water too much” previously. The scheme has also opened doors and given her the knowledge and framework to access the “pathway to becoming a councillor”.

Nicholas says that she has always been driven to effect positive change in her community so much so that having migrated to the UK in January 2006 by June 2006 she was civically active. She now partakes in extended community work and though she confesses that she does not agree with everything in the Party she belongs to, she still endeavours to bring a positive difference to all those her life touches and can affect.

And Nicholas is still not done. She says that potential grows continually over time and that although she did not imagine she would get where she has, she has no intention to rest on her laurels.

Following the same advice she gives to others Nicholas, refuses to set limitations on herself. She encourages us not to be too rigid with time frames for achieving your goals as life may throw you but to always have and maintain a vision. She adviseseveryone to build networks and talk to people, as you never know where this could lead. A recent example of this, includes the fact that through this approach, she recently organised the first official visit of Liverpool Councillors with the Trinidad High Commissioner to talk about improving links between Trinidad and Britain, and specifically Liverpool.

She tells us to always be real and true to ourselves, that no matter where you are, don’t be averse to talking to people at their own level, often donning a pair of jeans whilst she walks around her ward. Nicholas is like the poster girl for Maya Angelou’s classic poem ‘Still I Rise’.

Refusing to be beaten by the odds, she constantly holds as her mantra the same belief that has been the impetus behind many of the greatest history-changing achievements the world has seen, the likes of MLK, Obama, Jesse Jackson, standing flat-footed in the face of all adversity with the belief that “One voice makes the difference”.

Ashlea Williams