Coaching is Being Used
Initial research for a 2005 coaching roundtable generated a list of more than 220 American communities that utilized coaching for organizational or community development.
Ken Cohen, a former Horizons coach in Idaho, defines community change coaching as, “an adaptive proves tailored to unique community contexts to guide systemic change via participant empowerment.” This guidebook is meant to provide an introduction to this concept, and outline the practice of coaching for community change. It is part of an ongoing effort to develop a more comprehensive field guide.
Coaching is becoming an important component in community/organizational change initiatives as it addresses four trends: Rapidly changing communities, new leadership structures, increased emphasis on impact and increased return on investment.
This guide discusses why coaching is different from other community change approaches, how it can add value to capacity building efforts, the skills and competencies needed to succeed as a community coach, insights into what makes a coaching interaction successful, and evaluating the work of coaching and strategies.
Community coaches help people to learn and grow from their problems by helping them to take responsibility and empower themselves by focusing on their strengths. They are not the answer people; they help community members learn from one another and from their own experiences. The coach’s role is to learn with community members about how to build community capacity to do things more effectively.