HKICC Social Responsibility Projects

Volunteer Coaching Roundup: Recent Successes, Future Plans
by Michelle Gabbe, Janine Broekhuizen, and Carol Gibb
AIESEC-HKICC Volunteer Coaching Project Coordination Team 2006-2007

HKICC members have offered volunteer coaching services for a number of years, to recipients including Salvation Army staffers and leaders of student organization AIESEC, as well as local medical professionals facing the challenges of SARS. As HKICC embarked on a third round of volunteer partnership it became time to start formalizing the developing process and consider expanding the volunteer service to other organizations. This article will give you a brief overview of how our volunteer coaching service works with AIESEC so that you may consider to: join us as a volunteer coach, suggest ideas for project expansion, or refer additional organizations that could benefit from working with us.

Phase I: Bring it On!
We were delighted but unprepared for the more than 50 AIESEC committee members who initially signed up to be matched with one of just 17 HKICC volunteer coaches. AIESEC, the world’s largest international student organization, provides a platform for young people to discover and develop their potential with a central aim to positively impact society. These ambitious young adults come into coaching with many of the same issues of older working professionals: time-management challenges, work-life imbalance, and career path concerns are just a few. Our plan for a casual coaches-meet-coachees mixer quickly became an impromptu ‘speed-coaching’ event due to the unexpectedly high turnout of participants at Polytechnic University on November 11, 2006. Matching of coach to coachee based on coachee-preference alone was a real brain teaser for these coordinators! Ultimately, 20 students were matched to one of their preferred coaches, while those students who had not met one or more application requirements were wait-listed. Our great thanks go to President Charlie Lang, who enriched the November 11 event with an engaging “What is Coaching?” presentation, and gave a generous repeat performance for Phase II.

Phase II: Coachability and Commitment
With more prospective AIESEC coachees waiting in the wings, Janine rallied the troops for a second phase of the partnership at a volunteer coach orientation night. Former volunteer coordinators Angela Spaxman and Katherine Lo graciously shared their previous experiences and recommendations, and new plans for streamlining the phase II process were announced. Recognizing that, by its pro bono nature, this program has the potential for low-level commitment, we sought to strengthen the students’ buy-in to the coaching process with further background information and more extensive written application requirements. 

At student orientation night, Past-President Bonnie Chan treated attendees to a number of interactive exercises to illustrate the experience of being coached – what to expect, and what not to expect. Many students professed being profoundly affected by their participation, and we so appreciate her inspirational contribution! Magically, for coach-coachee meet and match day at Baptist University on 21st April, we had an equal number of coaches and coachees enabling each participant to enjoy a 15-minute introductory coaching session with 3 potential partners. Immediate Past-President SK Shum rounded out the celebrity appearances by kicking off the day with an enthusiastic project overview. The phase II partnerships have begun, and will continue for a minimum of 10 sessions to be held over 3–4 months’ time.

Why Volunteer?
Benefits of joining the program as a Volunteer Coach include the opportunity to build up coaching hours for certification, the valuable experience of coaching clients who are younger than the typical coachee, and access to FREE mentor coaching support from Volunteer Mentor Coach Véronique Ficheux. Mentor meetings provide an inviting atmosphere to learn and share, and are held monthly thanks to the generous venue sponsorship of Active Communication (http://www.activecommunication.net/ ).

Please be aware that requirements for Volunteer Coaches include membership in HKICC, participation in a formal training program from an accredited coach training organization, a commitment to abide by HKICC’s coaching standards, and agreement to complete a monthly update detailing session dates and perceived progress. In addition, Volunteer Coaches may join our online community at VolunteerCoachingHK-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, where they will find coaching form templates, project-related reports, and a forum for support and dialogue with Véronique or any of the other participating coaches.  

What’s Next?
Future directions for this group are under heavy discussion and we invite you to weigh in! What is for certain is that all of HKICC’s volunteer activities will soon be posted to a new permanent section of our website.

To join the Volunteer Coaching Project as a coach, submit feedback on the 2006-2007 program or new ideas for the next round, or to suggest names of additional organizational recipients of volunteer coaching, please write to Janine at j_broekhuizen@hotmail.com

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HKCC was awarded “caring organization” in 2005/6 by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services, click here

Learn more about our previous CoachXchange sub-committee, click here