Community Ambassadors
Our Community Ambassadors are local connectors who help us shape ideas and create experiences that truly belong to the community.
About the programme
The Community Ambassadors Programme is a brand new, two-year initiative that places local connectors at its heart.
We have recruited ambassadors from our priority areas of Tile Hill, Canley, Willenhall, Hillfields, and Foleshill to act as community connectors. These ambassadors collaborate with Warwick Arts Centre to shape ideas together, ensuring that activities are meaningful, inclusive, and responsive to community needs.
This is not about one-way engagement - it’s about building relationships, sharing decision-making, and creating experiences that belong to the community as much as to Warwick Arts Centre. Through this programme, we aim to break down barriers, amplify underrepresented voices, and celebrate the diversity of our region.
Please note, applications are currently closed for this programme.
Meet our Community Ambassadors
Loraine Masiya Mponela
Loraine is a migrants rights campaigner, author, and public speaker who currently lives in Coventry. She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Leeds and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health from the University of Malawi.
Professionally, Loraine has worked as a Lecturer and Head of Department at the Malawi College of Health Sciences, and as a Participatory Action Researcher with the Creative Centre for Community Mobilisation (CRECCOM). She is the best-selling author of I Was Not Born a Sad Poet and Now I Sing: 50 Poems To Celebrate 50 Years, using her voice and creativity to raise awareness of Hostile Environment systems.
Her leadership has been recognised locally and internationally, including the inaugural #Pioneer20 Award by Visa, as well as being named an Everyday Hero and Modern Day Lady Godiva by Coventry City of Culture 2021.
"The Community Ambassador role presents a unique opportunity of bringing diverse communities together. I am excited at the partnerships that can emerge and at how, together, we can all learn from, support, and bring out the best in each of us."
Kate Hills
Kate is an artist who is passionate about inspiring participation in the arts in its many forms and working within the community to engage with people of different backgrounds and skill sets. She has led numerous community art projects and delivers interactive workshops focusing on using recycled and household objects, showing people that art is, and always should be, accessible to everyone.
"I am so excited to be a Community Ambassador for Warwick Arts Centre, enabling me to focus on two of my passions: art and engagement with the local community. As an artist, I love to inspire and encourage participation in the arts and show people the joy and benefits of being creative, enabling them to pass on their newly learnt skills and enthusiasm for the arts to others."
Anne Lakey
Anne is a semi-professional organist who plays regularly at two churches in Coventry. Although semi-retired, she keeps highly active through a range of voluntary work, including helping at a local Church Lunch Club, supporting the Myton Hospice Shop, and contributing to the Tile Hill Reporter. She has a lifelong interest in music and the theatre, and is a passionate advocate for the social benefits of group music-making.
"Since becoming a Church Organist at Our Lady of the Assumption, I became aware of how much music means to people. It is a pressure release valve that can raise and calm your mood. I am extremely grateful to Warwick Arts Centre for helping us promote and run a choir group to encompass all types of music for the Tile Hill community."
Michelle Harris
Michelle serves as the parish secretary at Our Lady of the Assumption Church, supporting local parish life with warmth and dedicated organisation. Alongside this role, she is the chair of the Tile Hill Reporters, where she helps shape grassroots initiatives and amplify local voices to strengthen the community she proudly calls home.
"I have seen how creative community projects can strengthen local identity and bring people together. I believe the Arts Centre is an under-used gem within the community, often overlooked. I am eager to share my love for the arts and help more local residents discover and enjoy this vibrant facility on their doorstep."
Words from Warwick Arts Centre
Viktoria Sesi, our Audience Development Officer says: "The Community Ambassadors Programme is a two-year initiative designed to build long-term relationships within our Coventry communities, ensuring Warwick Arts Centre is welcoming, relevant, and accessible to all. By working with trusted local ambassadors, we create space to listen, learn, and co-create activities that reflect local interests. Through this work, we are exploring new ways to remove barriers to engagement and embed community-led learning into everything we do."
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