A speech from our departing Chair, Joe Burton

This speech was originally given at our Ignite! Board of Trustees Away Day on 21 July 2025.

Ignite!'s Board of Trustees, July 2025

My first board meeting for Ignite! was seven years ago in July 2018, not long after the decision had been made to set up Festival of Science and Curiosity as a separate company, which is a nice coincidence as the two organisations come back together in this away day as I leave.

The meeting was in an office in London and no one who's here today was there - it was myself, Rick, Hasmita, Pauline, and Diane. 

I was nervous, intimidated, and wasn't sure I was right for the board as I felt I had no real skills like accountancy or law to contribute. So I sat back and absorbed, read everything, asked lots of questions. It was a lot to learn about, and to be honest I realised that I didn't really know what Ignite did at all, and there was no strategic documents or good language for it at that point.

Over the following months and years, I learned three things...

The first was that Ignite was about creativity in young people, and keeping that unique creative spark alight in every young person as they travel through an education system that seems designed to dim it with learning focussed on memorising facts, testing, and tight curriculums. Ignite offered a different way of learning, a different way to grow up.

The second thing I learned was that creativity is not an art form. It's a worldview and a way of thinking that lies behind every great leap forward, every invention, whether that be an invention in engineering, medicine, and technology, but also inventions in culture, philosophy, language and art. Behind everything new and exciting and interesting and important lies creativity and creative thinking.

And the final thing I learned was that access to creative thinking is a social justice issue, and Ignite was quite aggressively a social justice charity. Ignite doesn't just run programmes for every young person, but it focusses on those underserved, under-resourced, and marginalised, understanding that those who are low on resource, time and access have limited opportunities to nurture their creative brains, and this in turn can shut them out from opportunities to flourish in their education, it can shut them out from discovering their interests and aspirations, and importantly it can shut them out from rooms where they can use their voice and ideas to solve the systemic problems they see every day. The most important voice is the one we haven't heard yet.

I can see this thread of creativity as a right in every one of Ignite's programmes. The Festival showcases what harnessed creativity looks like in and can do, Primary Parliament challenges young people to design creative solutions to social issues, Curious Tots creates the environment for toddlers to question and explore the world around them. These are all programmes which centre this idea of creativity as a right for every young person throughout their childhood.

The language to describe what Ignite! is doing, and has been doing since its inception has been hard to articulate, but I'm proud to say that my era of trusteeship with Ignite! has been about finding those words, crafting that language, and describing the value of this work, and I can see that work paying off dividends as we've seen successes in funders recognising the value of Ignite's mission and backing it.

This intervention is needed, it's far reaching, it's face to face, it's based in communities. Ignite! is now in such a position of strength with this language, powerful programmes, and the strength of its united board of trustees and fantastic staff team. I believe Ignite! is in an enviable position amongst other charities in which it can unlock the support of trusts, foundations, corporates and I think even public support too. 

It's all so exciting and, though I'm leaving as Chair, I'll be watching closely and always ready to give my support if needed or wanted. It's been a wild ride as a trustee for the last seven years, and I want to give big shout out and send love to Megan and Sarah for being great people first and foremost and, second to that, wonderful people to work with.

Before I wrap up, I want to give some advice to trustees old and new. My advice is to remember that Nottingham wasn't built in a day. Change takes time and persistence. The role of a trustee is of course about risk management and strategic thinking and pushing forwards, but it's also about stewardship and care for what currently exists and those that deliver it.

I've been so proud to support an organisation that works with young people every week, backing their aspirations to ignite a new future for themselves and the people around them.