The Female Coaching Network (FCN) is “The Leading Global Community of Female Coaches Who Support, Drive and Influence Real Change in Sports Diversity.”
Since its creation in 2014, the FCN initially focussed on growing a community of women coaches around the world and providing a supportive platform for coaches to connect, share and develop.
In the early years, with no funding or resources, the FCN founder continued to raise awareness of a lack of women coaches in high performance sport through the FCN website, social media platforms, a variety of in-person events. In addition, the FCN presented a number of workshops in partnership with organisations such as European Athletics, Spar International, Cruyff Institute and Project 500.
At the beginning of 2020, thanks to the start of some key partnerships including that of NIKE, Leeds Beckett University and JRW Media, the FCN launched its PRO Strategy; Performance, Relationships and Opportunities. This unique and innovative strategy provides an in-depth framework in which to address the issue of a lack of women coaches in a holistic and sustainable way.
The PRO Strategy is used as a lens in which to identify barriers, provide solutions and deliver change.
“We don’t just tick boxes, we make change happen.”
The FCN provides consultation to NGB’s, Sports Federations and Franchises who seek to find the best coaches for the job.
KEY SPORTS
Whilst the FCN social media and website is open to all sports, and all coaches, in order to make impactful and sustainable change, it is imperative that the FCN finds a way of delivering focussed and sustainable projects.
The FCN team remains incredibly small and its workload continues to increase day on day, as the fight for gender equality in high performance sport is ever more present.
With this is mind, the FCN has decided to chose 4 key sports in which to initially focus its efforts. Through these 4 key sports, the FCN will deliver its own unique projects aimed at achieving gender equality at the high performance level, whilst working alongside the decision makers in order to make real impact.
The 4 Key Sports are: Track & Field, Soccer / Football, American Football and Basketball.
The FCN aims to partner with key organisations and coaches who can provide powerful insights, experience and provide a passion for change.
If you are involved with any of these key sports and are interested in partnering with the FCN to deliver impactful projects, please contact us at: info@femalecoachingnetwork.com
TRACK & FIELD
As one of 4 key sports, the FCN will be launching a brand new Track & Field Project, aimed at working towards gender equality in high performance athletics coaching.
February saw the launch of the ‘Women in Coaching Initiative’ in partnership with ALTIS who provide high performance coach education for track & field coaches both in-person and online. At their home in Phoenix, Arizona, ALTIS delivered their first women only Apprentice Coach Programme, which saw 20 coaches attending their 4 day in house coach development initiative.
April will see the launch of a year long research project in partnership with Leeds Beckett University’s Centre for Social Justice in Sport & Society, into gender equality in high performance coaching in athletics in the U.K. The aim of this research is to not only provide a picture of the coaching landscape in the U.K, but to also create strategies for the advancement of gender equality in high performance coaching in the sport.
May will welcome the launch of Track & Field Tuesday’s on the FCN social media channels, providing T&F coaches around the World an insight into the current coaching stats, inspiring quotes and interviews with fellow coaches and provide a tool for T&F coaches globally to form their own athletics networks.
Throughout the summer, whilst plans have changed slightly due to Covid-19, there will also be the creation of a number of online Track & Field coaching networks, which will be continued through to in-person networking events once the sporting calendar is back to normal.
The FCN will also be proactively seeking partnerships with T&F organisations outside of the U.K in order to grow the project further.
Our 2020 Partners and Supporters
