If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that community isn’t something you talk about, it’s something you show up for. At Central, we set out with a simple goal: to turn our commitment to social impact into actual support for people across the North-East. Partnering with Changing Lives, a charity that works tirelessly to help individuals experiencing homelessness, domestic abuse, addiction and social exclusion, gave us a meaningful way to do just that.
This year, our team ran, rowed, swung clubs, sorted clothing, and pledged funds, not as box‑ticking exercises, but as a way to bring people together and make a real difference in our region.
Why Changing Lives?
Choosing Changing Lives once again as our chosen charity wasn’t a branding decision; it’s a values decision. We’re in recruitment. We help people find work, build careers and create stability for themselves and their families. Changing Lives helps people do the same, but for those facing barriers that are often invisible until you meet them up close. When someone is rebuilding after a crisis, employment isn’t just income. It’s identity, routine, purpose, often the key step toward longer‑term recovery and independence.
For us, that alignment matters. The charity’s services address the complex realities behind employment gaps: housing insecurity, trauma, health challenges and social isolation. Supporting Changing Lives allows us to play a small part in tackling those barriers.
Our 2025 Pledge: 1% of Profits
We wanted our commitment to be clear and measurable. That’s why we pledged to donate 1% of our annual profits to Changing Lives in 2025. Setting a percentage rather than a fixed sum does two important things:
It creates accountability to sustainable growth. When the business performs well, our community support grows with it.
It embeds giving into the company’s financial planning, rather than leaving it to ad‑hoc decision making.
Why Charity Matters to Our Business, and Our Community
Charitable contributions aren’t an add‑on to our brand. They are part of how we define success. As a recruitment agency, we measure outcomes in placements, retention and growth. But we also measure something less tangible: our role in making the North-East a fairer, more resilient place to live and work.
Giving strengthens our culture. It creates moments of pride, encourages collaboration across teams, and gives people a chance to put their values into action. It deepens our relationships with clients and candidates because people want to work with businesses that care about more than the bottom line. And it supports our strategy: by partnering with a charity aligned to our mission, we invest in the foundations that enable people to succeed in the workplace.
For our local community, the benefits are clear. Changing Lives provides support where it’s needed most, bridging gaps that can otherwise lock people out of opportunity. When businesses step up, charities can extend their reach, innovate, and respond faster. The result is a healthier, more inclusive region, and that has knock‑on effects for everyone: employers, employees, families and future generations.
How We Communicate and Stay Accountable
Transparency matters. Throughout the year we shared updates on our website and social channels, highlighting events, celebrating milestones, and explaining where funds and donations were directed. Internally, we kept colleagues involved with regular briefings, volunteer sign‑ups, and post‑event debriefs to capture learning for next time.
A Thank You to Our Team and Supporters
None of this happens without people. To our colleagues who trained, paddled, put on golf shoes, sorted clothing, shared posts and made donations… thank you. To our clients and partners who sponsored events, amplified our messages and offered support… thank you. And to Changing Lives, whose staff and volunteers turn resources into hope, we’re proud to stand alongside you.
Community is built by the hands that show up. In 2025, our team showed up, and we’ll keep showing up in 2026.
