Centric Community Projects

Look who's back!

You may remember an article that Centric published back in June bidding farewell to our Summer Intern, Nate Burnikell. If you haven’t read it yet, have a look here– it contains some interesting musings from Nate on his time here at Centric and the merit of paid internship opportunities. It was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to our intern, who in six weeks managed to make some effective changes about how Centric goes about its daily business. In October, with happy hearts, we welcomed Nate back into the Centric family as our newest trustee!

After he left Centric, Nate accepted a place on the Civil Service Fast Stream, a Times Top 100 graduate programme which is designed to nurture the country’s most talented graduates, help shape the future leaders of the UK Civil Service, and allow them to thrive and progress quickly in their careers as Civil Servants. Fast Streamers work across a huge variety of government departments, rotating posts initially every 6 months, and then once a year in the final two years of the programme. Nate’s first posting has seen him posted in Defra as a policy advisor, working on Geographical Indications, UK Industrial Strategy, and coordinating the Food Chain’s involvement in the EU Withdrawal Bill and its attached secondary legislation programme. In March, he will move on to his next post as a Secretariat Manager at the Department for International Trade.

Returning to Centric, Nate brings with him a diverse bank of skills and ideas along with an enthusiasm for community empowerment and charitable endeavours. His portfolio of previous experience is wide-ranging, starting with humble work, early in his career, at fast food chains and restaurants, and stretching now to University recruitment, sales, providing advice in the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, and leading award-winning student activist groups. We anticipate that as his career progresses, he will continue to branch and grow, bringing new experiences and talents into the Centric family.

Nate is now the youngest trustee to ever be appointed to the Centric family. The average age of Trustees in the UK is 57, and a recent study by the Charities Aid Foundation found that only 85% of people under 35 would even consider becoming a trustee. We asked Nate for his take on this:

“As with any organisation, diversity is important. Age is often overlooked when we consider diversity and being young is often wrongly correlated with the assumption that a candidate lacks the needed experience, education, or skill level to meet the demands of a trustee role. If one instead looks at age as a matter of diversity, the picture shifts a little. A diverse work force, managing team, or board of trustees, will always have its benefits. Diversity, be it in regards to race, sexuality, religion, gender, or age will always bring fresh life into an organisation and will always drive that organisation forward in a way that benefits its staff, its clients, and its stakeholders. I am over the moon with my recent appointment to the board of Trustees, eager to get stuck in, excited to see the opportunities being in the Centric family will present to me, but mostly enthused to see what I can offer to a charity already doing so much good up and down the country. There is a long way to go to make the appointment of young, skilled trustees the norm- but I am hopeful that the industry is moving in the right direction.”