Leaders from Y.O.U., College Now, Urban League, The Centers/El Barrio, Goodwill, Towards Employment, OMJ/ULA and OhioGuidestone worked together to design a program to upskill their coaches who help clients enter the workforce. By creating common foundational knowledge and skills and setting a standard for coaching across the ecosystem, CoachU can help more people in our community get into better fit, high quality jobs. The CoachU design team looked at several national career coaching curricula and determined what was most needed locally.  

CoachU equips coaches with:

• A greater sense of confidence in the work they are doing

• Builds knowledge and skills to build and maintain positive and productive relationships with clients in their day-to-day work

• Moves clients along in their career or education goals

• Guides clients towards finding good quality jobs and careers paying living wages, that are good matches with their skills and interests

• Helps to remove barriers in clients lives 

• Motivates clients holistically and compassionately with a lens towards racial equity and inclusion

CoachU aims to create a “Gold Medal Standard” of coaching that includes an integrated curriculum and to create a coaching community of practice.  Aside from developing more skilled and knowledgeable career coaches, CoachU is building this community of practice to allow coaches to learn from each other as well as learn about the other organizations in the region. When coaches gain these skills and knowledge, they are then able to better help their clients. 

“To be able to collaborate with others from different organizations is a plus, that helps give a perspective on things you may not have thought about.

The one thing that I use so far is the Motivational Interviewing. I have added this tool to how I speak with my youth, asking them what it is they want to do after the work experience and how can I help them to get there. The more I work with the young adults, the more I love what I do daily to encourage, inspire & build relationships.” 

- Lynette Pickett, Y.O.U. Job Coach

Y.O.U. congratulates Lynette Pickett, Cassidy McMahan, Eboni Wheeler, Phil Schmehl, and Mia Templeman who received their certifications with CoachU. To learn more, reach out to CoachU director Bryan Wortmann.