ICF Foundation Announces Six Inaugural Grant Recipients

LEXINGTON, Ky., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Six entities that offer pro bono coaching in education have been selected to receive grants totaling more than $43,000 from the International Coach Federation Foundation, a nonprofit organization created exclusively for education, research and charitable purposes.

In 2009, the ICF Foundation invited professional coaches working with non-profit organizations and school associations that provide pro bono coaching to principals, headmasters, teachers and/or students to apply for an inaugural grant. Thirty-two applications were received by the January 31, 2010 deadline.

"In deciding on what initiatives to award the grants to, the ICF Foundation Board of Trustees looked for initiatives that were already operating and that had a distinct focus on education," said ICF Foundation President and Professional Certified Coach Karen Tweedie. "The funds were to support pro bono coaching and to create great opportunities to affect a wide range of influencers in education. We also sought maximum 'bang for the buck' and a good plan for sustainability."

The ICF Foundation is pleased to announce the following grant recipients:

• Coaching For Results, Inc.: A non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to helping school leaders achieve extraordinary results both professionally and personally as they support and foster confident, competent, courageous school leaders who lead their schools to high performance. The organization has been in operation since 2002.

• Georgia School Superintendents Association (GSSA): The GSSA Coach Program, initiated in 2002, offers each first-year superintendent with a GSSA Coach for one calendar year. Due to the success of the GSSA Coach Program, GSSA was invited to provide training for the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals (GASSP), school districts, and regional education agencies.

• LeaderSpring, a project of the Tides Center: A nonprofit in Oakland, Calif., that offers pro bono coaching to nonprofit leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of whom lead agencies that raise educational achievement for low-income children, youth and families. LeaderSpring is a fiscally sponsored project of the Tides Center. The program was first piloted in 2006.

• Mount Laurel School District: A New Jersey school district that provides an educational consultant, trainer and coach for teachers in the Language Arts department at Harrington Middle School as part of the school's intervention improvement process. This project began during the 2008-2009 school year.

• National Education Association (NEA): Representing 3.2 million public school employees, the NEA has established a Career Development Program to provide confidential support to education leaders through training and consultation, with the goal of adding a coaching track to build skill development in the area of life and career coaching.

• Touch Point Connection, Inc (TPC): TPC offers "Coaching Teens toward Educational and Life Success," now in its second year of a three-year program development phase at a large, urban, high-poverty high school in Tucson, Arizona. The program uses volunteers trained and supported by certified coaches to provide pro bono "success coaching" to at-risk teens.

Founded in 2004, the ICF Foundation is a separate, nonprofit entity from the ICF that exists exclusively for education, research and charitable purposes in professional coaching. The sole focus of the ICF Foundation from 2009 to 2011 is supporting pro bono coaching in education. For more information, please visit http://FoundationofICF.org.  

The ICF is the leading global organization for coaches, with more than 18,000 members in over 90 countries, dedicated to advancing the art, science and practice of professional coaching. The ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. For more information, please visit http://Coachfederation.org.

ICF CONTACT:      

Ann Jarvis, +1.859.226.4428, [email protected]

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SOURCE International Coach Federation Foundation