Create Your Action Plan

By working through the previous pages, you are well on your way to creating an action plan for women in coaching in your organisation. The following information is useful to remember as the plans are finalised.

Setting and Measuring Objectives

Once a core goal is set, setting business objectives is the next step towards fostering a clear understanding of how to reach the desired outcome. The main difference between objectives and goals is that objectives are precise actions or measurable steps individuals and groups take to move closer to the goal. They are specific targets that typically have a time-bound schedule or timeline for completion.

Funding your Coaching Programmes / Initiatives

Through the Sport Ireland Women in Sport Programme, funding is available to National Governing Bodies and Local Sports Partnerships to develop programmes/initiatives for women in sport. These programmes/ initiatives may target women and girls in coaching. There are also Sport Ireland Volunteer funding schemes which could target the same group, for example, Dormant Account Funding. Consider collaborating with other sports or LSPs to develop or run coaching programmes/initiatives for female coaches. This can open up new avenues for funding or save on resources. It is worthwhile exploring national, regional and international funding support which can help you achieve your aims.

Partnerships

Forming coalitions both within the organisation and outside of the organisation /club, can be very important (e.g. with groups /organisations that have specialised remits to do with race or ethnicity). These groups can support and guide you with their level of expertise.

The Importance of Monitoring and Evaluation

It is vital in any plan to have monitoring and evaluation in place right from the start. Your audit will have identified the position your organisation is in before the plan starts. You may need to amend your current methods of data capture and tracking to ensure you start to collect the right information annually, so you can analyse whether your actions are making a difference. Ensure you collect and analyse qualitative information e.g. questionnaires for participant feedback after coaching courses/workshops, as well as just quantitative information, e.g. the numbers of people who attend courses and achieve qualifications (male and female).

It would be useful for organisations to put in place systems to track the number of women who progress into coaching after attending coaching courses.