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Volunteering with Coventry Growth Initiatives
 

We welcome volunteers to work with our organisation and provide appropriate training and upskilling to enhance their development and career prospects! To volunteer with us click here to view our volunteer pack and policies. Simply complete and send it in the post to Coventry Growth Initiatives , 49 Falstaff Road, Tile Hill, Coventry, CV4 9RX. 

 

Volunteer Profiles

 
Kala Williams (nee Grant) - Founder
 
The Chairperson currently manages the Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament project which is funded by the Leverhulme Trust at the University of Warwick of which she is a graduate. At Warwick she did an MA in Humanities including Human Rights Law and Caribbean Studies. She has published papers and articles on Gender and Sexuality (See Sargasso 2003-04, I:The Guadeloupe Papers) and subversive discourse in popular cultural expressions of Jamaica quoted by other researchers and academics. She has also contributed her poetry to an anthology of new writing by Coventry Refugees, minority groups, international students and resident foreign workers called I Have Crossed An Ocean - a publication by Heaven Tree Press in 2004 which was distributed free of charge to schools, libraries and community centres throughout the city of Coventry . Her professional background is in managing voluntary sector projects which meet UK Government targets of closing gaps in various inequalities, be it in health, education or social development. She has worked with the Coventry Law Centre to stand against discrimination. She founded Coventry Growth Initiatives to meet the professional and social needs of marginalised yet highly skilled, ethnic minorities within UK based on her personal experiences of marginalisation as a highly skilled migrant and continues to give freely of her time and expertise to minorities and other agencies in need of advice where possible.
 
"People may try to hold you back if you are ignorant of the processes and culture of your environment - these are challenges to be overcome and are neither a real nor permanent barrier to achieving your goals and certainly are not the measurement of all people you may come across. Increase your knowledge, widen your horizons and learn from your experiences as an ethnic minority in the UK."

 
Haja Wurie - Vice Chair
 
Haja is currently doing her doctoral training with Warwick Medical School. She is a dedicated volunteer teacher at the supplementary school Coventry Black Boys Can. She has acquired high levels of technical skills, an MSc in Biomedical Science and has a record of working with ethnic minorities who are less advantaged. She is committed to the advancement of marginalised minority groups. She is also on the editorial board of an innovative educational resourceful website called Blackpupils.com designed to encourage and challenge pupils to raise their personal expectations, perspectives, academic and social aspirations. Her graduate calibre has enabled her to influence young people and adults to develop their skills and become more employable.
 
 
Anna Khmelnitski- Secretary
 
Anna currently divides her time between work in the healthcare sector, updating travel guidebooks for Rough Guides and doing translation work online. A graduate of the University of Warwick, she has a BA Hons. in Comparative American Studies and pursues her twin passions of travel and social and criminal justice, with a particular emphasis on capital punishment around the world. Most recently she has assisted an American lawyer in a high-profile federal case and has volunteered with the Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights for a number of months, providing legal assistance to defendants with no financial means. She is active in her own community in Cambridge, volunteering with St John’s Ambulance and at the local homeless shelter, and believes that her eclectic background is an advantage when it comes to reaching out to marginalized groups within society and assisting them in achieving their potential.
 
 
 
 
 
Adewale Omoniyi (GradStat) - Executive Board Member
 
Mr Adewale Omoniyi holds a B.Sc and an M.Sc in Statistics from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and University of Lagos, Nigeria respectively. A member of various Statistical associations like The Royal Statistical Society, Uk, Ameriacan Statistical Society and Statistical Society of Canada . Mr Adewale Omniyi has just been upgraded to a Graduate Statistician Status by the Royal Statistical Society, UK. He has worked as a Statistician with Datasmith Statistical Consultancy Ltd. in Nigeria and was at the same time a Part-time lecturer in the Department of Statistics, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Nigeria. Adewale Omoniyi was appointed a Special Assistant to the Deputy Governor, Ogun State, Nigeria. A position he held succesfully for four years before relocating to the United Kingdom. Adewale Omoniyi has conducted a series of research most especially in the areas of Social and demographic activities of people. He is currently working on a paper which deals with many problems of the Ethnic Minorities in the UK and the possible solutions.