About Girls Write Now
For 25 years, Girls Write Now has been breaking down barriers of gender, race, age, and poverty to mentor and train the next generation of writers and leaders who are impacting businesses, shaping culture, and creating change. In over 30 states across the nation, Girls Write Now matches female and gender-expansive young adults from systemically underserved communities—over 90 percent of color, 90 percent high-need, 75 percent immigrant or first-generation, and 25 percent LGBTQIA+—with professional writers and digital media makers as their personal mentors. In addition to being the first writing and mentoring organization of its kind, Girls Write Now continually ranks among the top programs nationwide for driving social- emotional growth for youth. Girls Write Now has been distinguished three times by the White House as one of the nation’s top youth programs, twice by the Nonprofit Excellence Awards as one of New York’s top ten nonprofits, by NBCUniversal’s 21st Century Solutions for Social Innovation, and as a Diane von Furstenberg People’s Voice Nominee.
About the Coaching Corps Initiative
Over the past few years as Girls Write Now has dramatically expanded both nationally and virtually, the organization’s professional staff has doubled in size. Having a healthy work culture, a strong team, and professionally fulfilled employees are among Girls Write Now’s top priorities; the Coaching Corps initiative is part of our expanding portfolio of professional development offerings ensuring that our team is optimizing its strengths to excel in an organization that is experiencing rapid growth and change.
The goal of the Coaching Corps initiative is to nurture top leaders at Girls Write Now to continue to thrive and succeed on staff while creating the greatest impact for the community and organization which staff manage.
The Coaching Corps:
- Is built on Girls Write Now’s pillars of Writing, Mentoring, Community, Equity, and Wellness.
- Upholds our staff values of Accountability, Compassion, Honesty, and Trust.
- Derives its approach from many existing nonprofit executive coaching programs, and is sensitive to the unique opportunities and challenges of the nonprofit sector.
About Our Coaches
- Girls Write Now is building a corps of professional coaches who are interested in volunteering their time to work directly with staff to support the Girls Write Now mission.
- Coaches will hail from a variety of backgrounds, industries, and career stages to reflect the diversity, skills, and experience of Girls Write Now staff.
- Coaches will have a track record of success in their fields, uphold Girls Write Now’s core values, mission and goals, feel a call to service, and have a strong interest in fostering a culture of excellence within the nonprofit sector.
- Coaches will be motivated to encourage the learning and development of our staff leaders so that they are better positioned to:
- Drive organizational goals and strive for excellence and greater impact.
- Develop more effective interpersonal communication skills.
- Identify key indicators to increase their leadership effectiveness.
- Manage conflict and change within their teams and other staff.
- Arrive at their own conclusions and solutions to challenges as they arise.
- Resolve challenges to improve performance within their team and other staff.
- Build and sustain healthy relationships across teams and departments.
- Navigate sensitive and/or political issues and challenge held biases or assumptions.
- Clarify their core values and increase their professional efficacy.
- Find their ideal work-life balance or work-life integration.
Coaching Timeline & Responsibilities
- The Girls Write Now Coaching Corps initiative will be piloted from September 2023 to June 2024.
- Outreach begins in late spring 2023. The application process will include background and reference checks, and interviews with the Executive Director and/or Director, People & Culture. Once accepted, onboarding will include required orientation and training about the Girls Write Now mission, organizational values, and principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB).
- Coaches will be introduced to and paired with Director or Manager-level staff members to work together over the course of three to four months.
- Pairs will meet in one-to-one sessions with a focus on specific areas and goals, developing a plan to achieve them.
- Each coach will commit anywhere between three to five hours per month.
- Sessions will typically be 60-90 minutes each, but the length can be determined by each pair. It is expected that coaching will be largely virtual, but can on occasion be in person if desired and feasible for both parties.
- The pair will have the flexibility to determine the frequency and mode of communication, be it by email, phone, or video-platform, weekly or bi-weekly, etc.
- The Coaching Corp Initiative is overseen by Director, People & Culture, Daniella Olibrice, who will have regular check-ins with each pair to ensure the coaching relationship is on track. Coaching scopes may include an introductory and closing meeting with Daniella and/or the supervisor of the coached staff.
Application Process
Girls Write Now Coaching Corps is currently open to applications. For more information, please contact Director, People & Culture, Daniella Olibrice at [email protected].