Success Stories

Nicole Gaviria

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Soon after the first lockdown in early 2020, Nicole Dench was made redundant from her job as a youth community support worker.

During this time, she completed our first ever online Enterprise Programme and was matched with a mentor, to develop her business idea of a wellbeing programme for young women.

I was excited to utilise the lockdown as an opportunity for personal and professional growth. I had this business idea for some time but felt I lacked the skills and tools to kickstart my dream. I loved my experience on the Enterprise Programme, as it gave some structure and creative flow to my weeks during lockdown.

As the first lockdown was brief, Nicole soon found a new job and put her business idea on the back burner for a year. As can sometimes happen, her first mentor relationship did not work out as hoped and she was unhappy in her new job, so she switched roles and started a post-graduate course.

Nicole is now back working in youth mental health and continuing her study towards a Masters in Counselling at The University of Canterbury and has clear goals to launch a new business early next year.

Thankfully, Nicole stayed in touch with The Prince’s Trust Aotearoa New Zealand and we are working to facilitate a new mentor match for her.

Nicole is more optimistic now that she can develop her wellbeing programme for young women and realise her aspiration to become self-employed.

I have always been a resilient individual, the past year has shown me the importance of knowing who you are and what you value, as well as looking forward into the future and taking daily steps towards bringing them to life. I have learnt that I cannot fail - things may take longer than expected or not pan out as I had planned, but they always turn out for the best.