Some of the programming addressing these focus areas include: Sharing our Story (Feb. '23), Town Hall (May '23), Race Matters in Coaching (Aug. '23), our 25th anniversary event with a focus on coaching equity, messaging in our newsletters, our BIPOC Coaches Connect (racial affinity group as a social justice tools) and Coaching Pathway Program.  Below we elaborate on each of these are

1)   Awareness that equity is necessary for coaching:

With this focus, we seek to increase awareness of the importance of developing equity, belonging, and social justice competencies in depth and breadth. Currently, some of this development exists at the global and chapter levels. For example, ICF coaching competencies call for coaches to be culturally sensitive and consider the context of a client’s background and experience. Additionally, in North America, a few coaching training organizations include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) content in their education, and in the last year, ICF global has taken steps to help chapters be better prepared to incorporate DEI in their chapter offerings and practices. Further, ICFWA proactively engaged in early conversations with ICF Global, sharing our chapter's approach, mission, and leadership development pertaining to equity and belonging, and our work was sampled in ICF Global's Chapter Diversity Guide. All these are great starting efforts, and we propose that furthering the development of equity, belonging, and justice in the coaching profession is necessary. If a) the coaching profession's vision is to be integral to transforming societies, partly by enabling human development, and b) the ultimate achievement of human development is an awakening of our intrinsic unity, then, c) broader and deeper understanding of equity, belonging, and social justice is necessary, both, for diminishing our undesirable impact in coaching engagements with clients from backgrounds that are vastly different from ours, and for collectively cultivating capacity in others towards societal transformation. We will continue to share this perspective through our events, communication, and outreach efforts.

2)   Pro-equity and professional development programming through programs that:

a) Enable self-transforming mindsets: This includes bridging education programs around equity, belonging, and justice to coaching; programs to support coaches' further mastery of ICF competencies. Our chapter collaborates with ICF Global and other chapters for bring our members high quality education programs. Please see our Upcoming events below and be sure to check our website  for updates. 

b)  Build community: In line with our mission to develop meaningful relationships, we intend to embed community building in everything we do, from how we run meetings to offering spaces that build connection and spark dialogue that nourishes coaches’ self-transforming mindsets. For example, our BIPOC Coaches Connect, monthly Coaches Café, and Coaches Networking events were born out of this vision. We will continue to offer event “Annex” spaces to invite more dialogue around topics/presentations that were limited in time. We will also explore other ways to engage our members, affiliates, and community, such as engaging our members in the planning of our 25th Anniversary celebration (see volunteering opportunities below), or increasing communication with our members. So, stay tuned!

c)  Promote coaching equity: Coaching equity refers to any effort that drives or addresses more equitable experiences and outcomes in the coaching profession or through coaching, using an intersectionality approach. In 2023, we are inaugurated our Coaching Pathway Program (CPP) – a collaboration with Coaching for Everyone (CFE) to offer ten CFE scholars alumni a pathway towards ICF certification. The program for the first cohort kicked off in June 2023 and will conclude in May 2024. If you are interested in supporting this program, check out the Support the CPP page.

d) Amplify the value and reach of coaching: Our Outreach director is collaborating with other professional organizations to increase awareness about coaching, and will be exploring other outreach opportunities. Our Partnerships program with universities offer pro bono coaching to University MBA students to enable populations who may not have exposure to coaching to experience its value and see coaching as a viable option for their future leadership development. Between our Partnership and Outreach efforts, we see potential for sustaining the exploration of partnerships in service of equity through new sponsors. If you have ideas for potential sponsoring organizations, please contact administrator@icfwashingtonstate.org.

3)    Organizational sustainability:

a)     Board development: As a completely volunteer-run organization, our board members and volunteers are the brain, heart, and soul of the organization, and our chapter members and affiliates, the blood, flesh, and spirit. Developing our board ultimately nourishes our chapter members. In 2022, the board participated in DEI development workshops put together by our then Co-directors of Coaching Equity (John Miller and Erica Goos) and VP (Peyina Lin-Roberts). This year, our Director or Coaching Equity, Nicole Franklin, has engaged us in learning and clarifying the language we use for our work on equity. Various board members have engaged in DEI training for chapter leaders from ICF Global. We are also mid-way through our second round of a study group, learning through reading and dialogue around an inclusion and anti-racism book. In February this year, the board started with a board retreat to develop our collective leadership. In September 2023, the board participated in a racial equity retreat, co-facilitated by experienced racial equity consultants and caucus group facilitators. The board did pre-work and worked through half day of facilitated collective work to ready ourselves for racial caucusing--a social justice tool. The board's exploration of racial caucusing set the foundation for envisioning possibilities for racial equity work at the membership level, and surfacing how that is relevant to coaching.

b)     Systems and process improvement: In addition, internally, we are continually improving our systems and processes to better serve our community, from migrating our communication and documents to platforms that better support collaboration, to examining ways to better manage our content and leverage our data.

Terminology:

• ICF Global:  International Coaching Federation, the global family of organizations that sets the standards of practice
• ICFWA: ICF Washington State Chapter. We have our own organizational status, our own mission, and while we report to ICF Global, we set our own mission, direction, and goals.
  
• Coaching equity: Any effort that drives or addresses more equitable experiences and outcomes in the coaching profession or through coaching, using an intersectionality approach to cultivate a sense of belonging for everyone.