In recent days I have been watching news of the terrible aftermath of the earthquakes in Haiti and I found myself wanting to do something that goes beyond putting my hand in my pocket – something that goes beyond anything I can do alone. From this thought the bare bones of an idea – which I am calling Coaching for Haiti – was born.
For a few days I have been watching the to’ing and fro’ing of my thoughts. What if I put the idea out there and nobody responds? What if the response is so overwhelming that it takes over my life? What if...? What if...? Today I have decided to share it and to let you know how you can, if you feel moved to, get involved. This way, I get to see if the idea does indeed have wings.
What’s the aim of Coaching for Haiti? The aim is to leverage the power coaching has to do good in the world in order to raise money for the men, women and children of Haiti. As the ICF’s International Coaching Week (7th to 14th February) approaches I am also aware of the potential for Coaching for Haiti to raise the profile of the coaching profession.
How might it work? I see Coaching for Haiti as a time-bound (one-year?) project that could capture the imagination of coaches, their clients, their friends, family and many other contacts: the essence of Coaching for Haiti is to leverage the support of many people who, like me, are moved by the plight of the people of Haiti and recognise the long road ahead. I imagine there may be a key sponsor that provides practical support (setting up a website, managing receiving funds for Haiti and passing them on, helping to raise interest in the media etc.). I also imagine many ways in which coaches might help to raise money using their coaching and other skills.
How can you contribute? If Coaching for Haiti is to take flight it will need a wide variety of contributions. These range from offering ideas, through helping to find a sponsor or sponsors right through to offering coaching in exchange for sponsorship for Coaching for Haiti. Right now, more than anything, Coaching for Haiti needs your ideas.
Over time, I imagine different ways that coaches might set about raising money. Some of them may be in exchange for coaching (writing to offer coaching to five people you’d really like to coach in exchange for a donation to Coaching for Haiti, for example). Some of them may involve coaches rather than coaching (going on a sponsored walk with members of your coaching supervision group, for example). Some of them may involve people other than coaches.
What can you do if you are interested to learn more? Coaching for Haiti is an opportunity to follow your heart and to make the contribution that suits you. At this stage, it is an idea that may or may not have wings. If you would like to belong to the community of people who are interested to support this idea, please sign up as a member of the Coaching for Haiti group on LinkedIn. This is a place where you can get involved and contribute ideas. You can also follow the progress of Coaching for Haiti here at http://coachingforhaiti.blogspot.com/. I look forward to seeing you there.
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Dorothy, I think this is a great idea. I for one am keen to offer my coaching skills to raise money for Haiti and will put it out to my network of fellow coaches and clients and on my blog at http://turquoisemoments.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteMaybe payment can be done through the charitable giving kind of sites used for sponsorship. Think the first thing would be to identify one or two charities where we want to pass the funds on to who would probably have a mechanism for receiving that money.
Interested to see how this emerges; we know how powerful coaching is and how big the community is.
Dorothy, Kate Burton has pointed me in your direction and I too would like to help raise money through my coaching skills and my coaching network.
ReplyDeleteLet me know how I can help.