Nadine has been recognised for her excellent contributions to Underground Lights, a charity supporting individuals with experience of homelessness and mental health distress in Coventry, as a trustee for the last two years, and for her work locally with Arts & Homelessness International.
As a trustee at UL, Nadine has been pivotal in creating a supportive, inclusive environment where people can engage in theatre and creative expression. Through her unwavering commitment, empathy, and leadership, Nadine has made a lasting difference, enriching the lives of those we serve and embodying the true spirit of community service.
Nadine is unique in bridging the gap between high-level academia in one of the UK’s top universities while also being a hands-on community changemaker and activist. These two disciplines – academia and activism seldom come together and the impacts she has created are significant.
Arts & Homelessness International was tasked to co-create a festival for Coventry City of Culture and various strands of work responding to community need. Nadine attended almost every meeting with the homeless community to support the co-creation of an Arts and Homelessness Festival, Home and particular a participatory democracy project between homeless people and the council.
She was supportive and used her connections at add value to those effected by homelessness, principally in commissioning a research report – still the largest research project in our sector in history, about the Home Festival. It has had a positive effect on the way arts is being seen as a tool for to support homeless people not just locally but nationally and internationally.
As UL trustee Nadine supports people with experience of homelessness and/or mental health distress by nurturing creative development, providing vital support to our staff team, and both in UL role and outside of her trustee role she has led initiatives that foster confidence, creativity, and community among local people who often feel marginalised.
One of the biggest impacts Nadine has had is in enabling the local homeless community to set up a legacy project, CVllective. This was a self-managed group of creatives who were/are homeless in Coventry who wanted to continue to work together post CCC21. Nadine offered to support them, securing some funding and space to create an art project which was exhibited at Warwick University. It was a beautiful project which platformed the work of several homeless artists in the most impactful and meaningful way.
She is the kind of person who goes way beyond the job description and the boundaries of her role to make change happen for the most disadvantaged people in the region.