Today, I want to shout about my client Centric Community Research Limited. Founded by Shaun Danquah in 2021, Centric has done some truly amazing work in such a short space of time.

Centric is a black-owned company that has found innumerable ways to support its local and international communities, not just other black or BAME people, but many disadvantaged or underrepresented groups.

The entire Centric team gives 100% every single day in countless ways, not least of which is by providing employment, training and personal development opportunities with their local community.

I am in awe of Shaun and his team’s work ethic, drive and passion and how much they bring to their local and wider communities.

Training in the community

By training community researchers in the Lambeth and Southwark boroughs and seeking an understanding of key issues plaguing the community through their work, Centric shares those learning outcomes with corporations so we can get better results in all aspects of life.

Centric projects have helped huge national organisations better understand the struggles of black people, economically, socially, educationally, environmentally and in all aspects of mental and physical health.

Passion and projects

Centric’s approach allows groups of people who do not usually come forward in such processes to tap into their unheard voices and perspectives.

Centric is constantly learning and adapting its methods, building strong relationships within the community.

Its portfolio of work over the last 18 months has included:

• Research into childhood obesity in Southwark alongside Gehl.
• COVID-19 lived experience research in South London.
• Medical scepticism research in South London.
• Feedback sessions with health and care students from minority backgrounds at South Bank University.
• The vision for future cities with the London School of Economics.
• Research into chronic pain among black and low-income communities in Lambeth.
• COVID-19 insights with Southwark Council.
• Facilitation of focus groups for the South-East London Clinical Commissioning Group.
• Working alongside professors from King’s College London to explore health activism in Brixton, including an exploration into medical pluralism, self-care and ethnomedicine.
• An exploration of coping strategies utilised by marginalised communities in South London.
• A listening exercise of staff at a well-known London hospital facing the possibility of losing their jobs in light of the COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
• Research with black teenagers and young adults into loneliness and unemployment in Lambeth.
• Rebuilding trust with communities in Southwark, with Southwark Council.
• Occupational health engagement among minority communities in Newham and Tower Hamlets.
• Hammersmith and Fulham Council and issues around medical scepticism among communities in their vicinities.

Support Centric

Keep an eye out for more on this financial trauma initiative, where Centric and KBS will work together to support our community with their financial literacy skills and empower more people to succeed both personally and professionally with their finances.

Centric has also developed CEN Giving which has projects in Gambia, to clean up the waste on the beaches, empower the local peoples to develop their communities, improve tourism and help reduce the spread of diseases such as malaria.

If you would be interested in supporting Centric, learning more about the projects they’ve worked on or reading some of their fantastic in-depth review papers, visit their website, or follow them on Instagram.