Nikki Sharpe
Nikki Sharpe is a personal injuries lawyer and founder of social enterprise Youth Can Achieve. Recently, she was also named national Extraordinary Woman of the Year 2010.When Nikki tells her story, it is so compelling, people have to listen - and young people are challenged to make changes and take action. Nikki may now be a high profile personal injuries lawyer, but she can empathise in a very special way with those she has vowed to help. She has suffered so many disadvantages in her life, Nikki makes people realise that if she can achieve against the odds, then so could they.
Abandoned at a few weeks old by her mother, taken into care only to be terribly neglected and physically abused. Returned by social workers to a children’s home, an adoption that turned sour and bullied just because of the colour of her skin. A childhood spent hearing and believing that she was worthless and would never amount to anything.
Nikki left school with a few CSEs but determined to pull herself together, she took a secretarial course, then left home at 16 with £10 in her pocket, some clothes and a quilt to live with her adoptive sister in Manchester.
A job as a filing clerk with law firm Thompson's followed and when the firm opened an office in Sheffield, Nikki moved to the city as a copy typist. Happy in her work, Nikki started to tackle the problems of her past, seeking counselling and also her real parents and half-sister. Discovering and forgiving her parents gave her both understanding and closure.
As she got more involved with legal work, she realised she did have a burning ambition after all - to help other people. It fuelled her to push for promotion and eventually to reach for the thing she had never dared to dream of - becoming a solicitor. Thompson's took a chance on supporting Nikki through a gruelling five years of part time study and a year off work to complete her final qualifications at Sheffield University.
Working with the police a couple of years ago to help vulnerable and marginalised young people turn their lives round was the inspiration behind Youth Can Achieve. She realised she wanted to help youngsters overcome the hardships life can deal them and is now on a mission to boost the confidence and dreams of every young person she can reach out to. Nikki shows them how they can take charge of their lives and build a better future, no matter how desperate their situation and she’ll leave no stone unturned in order to succeed!
She has created a social enterprise which holds out a helping hand to young people who need it using a holistic approach. Youth Can Achieve exists to help disadvantaged and disaffected, vulnerable 10 to 30 year-olds with practical support, knowledge and information to nurture ambition and inspire positive life change. Nikki is now a regular speaker in the media, schools and for the police. She hosts her own weekly inspiration show on local radio and mentors the hardest to reach young people in care, work for which Nikki was invited to 10 Downing Street to meet Sarah Brown.
Featured several times on TV for the Big Sleep Out, her Extraordinary Women and Best Investor in Children awards, Nikki champions issues surrounding child poverty at a national level and locally is a member of the Sheffield Runaway Action Group. Only recently, Nikki was nominated for another award, Yorkshire Women of Achievement in Education and became a national advocate and speaker for the NSPCC in the same month. She is currently lobbying nationally for a Children’s day to recognize the plight and achievements of Britain’s young people, winning the backing of many major national children’s charities. In My 2011 she was voted local councilor for Walkley in Sheffield, the only black woman ever to reach the council and winning by the biggest margin for 20 years.
For more information about becoming involved with Youth Can Achieve as a mentor, speaker or sponsor, please contact founder Nikki Sharpe, associate solicitor at Thompsons’ Solicitors
Direct dial: 0114 270 3311 Mobile: 07980 239 061.
E-mail: NikkiSharpe@Thompsons.law.co.uk
Profile released on behalf of Youth Can Achieve by Faye Smith, Keep your Fork Marketing 07985 038265
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