How Preen Chakadonha Turned Black and Being Essex into a 250-Member Community for Belonging

When Preen Chakadonha founded Black and Being Essex (BABE) she wasn't planning to lead a fast-growing community. It started as a simple online directory: a way to make black-owned businesses in Essex easier to find.

Two years later, BABE brings together over 250 members through regular meetups, workshops and events across the county. But the story of how it got there is less about strategy and more about what happens when someone who has spent years feeling like something is missing finally decides to do something about it.

Photo: Preen Chakadonha

How it started

Preen migrated from Zimbabwe when she was ten years old and moved to Brentwood. For years, finding basic resources locally (hair products, hair services, cultural food) meant a trip into London.

"One day I just thought, wouldn't it be great to just have a directory? That's how BABE started."

The name came on a night out in Malta. Her friend said "Black and Being Essex" - and they both just knew. As an acronym, it became BABE, which Preen points out is very Essex in itself.

She tried building the website herself (she has a computer science background, though she laughs that it was over a decade out of date), and it quickly became a mess. While she figured out the technical side, she set up an Instagram page. It blew up. Not thousands of followers, but genuine engagement… people who wanted to connect, not just follow.

"Our first meetup was about six of us in a park in Chelmsford. From there it's grown into regular events, a free membership community, and now almost 250 members."

The community nobody expected

The first meetup was meant to be a casual picnic. Someone suggested it on social media, Preen put out a call, and six people showed up, including her little sister. They stayed for six or seven hours. At the end, people were exchanging numbers and asking to make a WhatsApp group.

That group became the foundation. By January 2024, BABE had an event with Essex County Council's Ambitious Women in Essex programme. That's when it became clear this was something bigger than a directory.

The membership now runs in six-month cohorts: a structure Preen designed deliberately. New members join, introduce themselves, and have six months to get to know each other before the next intake opens. Events happen monthly across Essex: picnics, hikes, sip and paint evenings, pottery, galas every six months. The most recent intake brought in around 90 new members.

WhatsApp Communities (which allow one main space with multiple subgroups) have been the operational backbone. BABE currently has around 15 subgroups covering different areas of Essex. "It's been an absolute game changer," says Preen. "It's one of those things where WhatsApp can be annoying but that has been incredible for us."

The grant, the CIC, and Curl Up Essex

In October last year, BABE registered as a Community Interest Company: a structure Preen discovered through her networking rather than any prior knowledge. A CIC isn't a charity and isn't a traditional business: money comes in and goes back into the community, with the option to eventually pay appropriate salaries and apply for grants.

"When I found out about Community Interest Companies, I was like — this absolutely makes sense for us."

The registration itself was straightforward. Companies House approved it within days. What followed was BABE's first ever grant application to the Brentwood Community Fund which they got on the first attempt.

The grant is funding Curl Up Essex, an event focused on curly hair care: scalp experts, trichologists, demonstrations, workshops, goodie bags. It's open to anyone with curly hair, not just Black women, because the hair access problem in Essex affects a lot of people.

There's a policy context worth knowing here. In 2015, the government passed legislation requiring hairdressing courses to teach different hair types. Years later, Preen is still asking where those hairdressers are. "In Brentwood there are so many hair salons but none catering to curly hair. Even for barbers — I cut my hair and went to get it maintained and they said no. I had to go to Shenfield."

The dream for Curl Up Essex is a roadshow… Brentwood first, then Chelmsford, Southend, wherever it can go. "If at least one salon puts a curly hair expert chair in their space, we've made an impact."

Last summer

Last summer brought something Preen hadn't experienced before in over two decades of living in Essex: genuine fear. When riots swept across parts of the country, Essex police published names from her road of people who had joined them. For two weeks, she barely left the house.

"I've experienced racism. But to actually feel physically unsafe was such a strange thing. I go to the co-op. I do things I don't think about. And I was thinking — who knows what would trigger these people?"

It's a moment that reframes what BABE is doing. A directory is useful. A community is sustaining. But belonging (really belonging, feeling safe in the place you live) that's something else entirely.

Preen is measured about whether community events can shift something as deep as that. "I don't know if we make any impact on the culture itself," she says. "It's still very othered, very whatever. I should be able to walk in and be the only black person and still feel okay."

But she's also clear about what she wants BABE to grow into: health workshops, finance workshops, sessions on maternity health. Black women in the UK are significantly more likely to die in childbirth than white women, a gap that has been documented repeatedly and is only slowly narrowing. These are the things that affect Black women and their families. These are the gaps BABE wants to fill.

Who she was before all of this

When I asked what young Preen had wanted to be when she grew up, the answer came without hesitation. A writer.

"She just wanted to basically put down in words the visions and the dreams and the stories that she had in her mind."

She was known as the essay girl. She once reached the WhatsApp character limit writing a message. "If someone wants to understand me, it's through my writing."

She hasn't written much lately. But perhaps a community built on stories (on making people feel seen, heard and represented in the county where they live) is its own kind of writing.

The growth Preen didn't plan for

Today Preen has a team of six or seven people, all voluntary, covering social media, events and admin. Delegating didn't come naturally… A business is something you build from scratch, you're protective of. But it's been a relief.

The directory itself (the original idea) soft launched last October and is being properly launched now. Preen is honest that the social side has taken over as the priority, and that the directory may end up as a backup rather than the main event. Future plans include a paid subscription model for members who want to stay connected without WhatsApp, and sponsorship partnerships for events.

"I can't believe I'm one of those people where I come up with an idea and it actually becomes a thing. I'm one of those people now."

Her advice to anyone thinking about starting something is the same advice she eventually gave herself: just start.

"You can only worry about starting. That's it. Once you put it out there — it might pivot, it might turn into something completely unexpected. But you just don't know. You really don't know."