Nigel Van Vessem
Nigel leads Marvel Projects UK CIC, working across Rotherham, Sheffield and Doncaster with people who have been shut out of work and training. He oversees the CIC's delivery under Rotherham Council's Pathways to Work programme, builds the employer relationships that turn training into actual jobs, and secured the National Lottery funding behind our Kiveton family sport project.
His background is in business development in the construction and health and safety sector, which is where most of our employer partnerships come from — he knows the people doing the hiring.
Nigel's interest in this work is not accidental. Thirty years ago he lost his brother, and since then he has been preoccupied with why men — particularly men in physical trades — so often go without help until it is too late. That thinking runs through how the CIC engages men: sideways, through activity and work, rather than through anything that looks like an intervention.
“Hard to reach usually just means nobody has tried the right way yet.”