Insights and key findings from LCN’s 2024 Community Organizing Coach Training Program

What does it take to coach a team toward a bold strategic goal, not just toward activities?
How do I coach individuals and groups to turn shared values into meaningful collective action?
How can we coach campaigns to count success, create matrices, and build collaborative leadership teams that can scale?

These are just a few of the questions we explored with the 22 leaders who graduated from Leading Change Network’s inaugural Community Organizing Coaches Training Program (COCTP) in June 2024.

What did we learn? Continue reading to explore our reflections and key highlights!

About the Program

Building on two years of success in the Public Narrative Coaching Program, Leading Change Network (LCN) launched the first-ever Community Organizing Coaches Training Program in the Spring of 2024. Over 8 weeks, participants deepened their coaching skills, strengthened their leadership practices, and learned how to coach leadership teams to launch campaigns that drive change.

In social justice and people power campaigns, coaches play a crucial role in developing the leadership of frontline organizers  and in enabling the strategic, emotional, and educational capacity of constituencies to win. As part of a larger organizing ecosystem, coaching strengthens the ability of communities to drive change effectively. This program was created to support the growth of skilled coaches and, ultimately, to fuel more winning people power campaigns across the globe.

Led by experienced Lead Trainers and supported by a curriculum co-designed by Abel Cano, Benedict Hugusson, Mais Irqsusi, and Salma Sameh, the program emphasized live modeling, peer learning, and real-world application.

“I think I overvalued facilitation/guiding vs coaching prior to this course and undervalued strategy, guide-posting, and critical questions. My craft has greatly improved as a result, and I am better at diagnosing my own and others gaps.” – COCTP’25 Graduate

Who Participated?

22 graduates from nine countries: Austria, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Tanzania, United States—all of whom are community organizers, campaigners and trained in the People, Power, Change framework, 73% coached a community organizing workshop before joining the program, and 95% joined the program with the intention of leading Community Organizing workshops in their local community.

“I am hoping to grow my coaching skills so that I can confidently support my constituency. This includes getting better at diagnosing challenges and welcoming vulnerability into the coaching process.”

Program structure

With a total of 40 hours of learning, participants attended live sessions on a weekly basis,  combined with a weekend intensive workshop, group skill practice assignments, office hours, and feedback from their teaching fellows (i.e. meta-coaches).

The sessions included:
Primer Workshop (for participants needing a refresher on the organizing framework) | Launch: Program Introduction & reflecting on the coach’s role | Facilitation Skills: Building learning community and Managing difficult personalities | Coaching of coaching & Holding Authority | Coaching Relationships & The Intervention process | Structure 1: Facilitating a Leadership Team Launch | Strategy 1 & 2: Deep Dive into Campaign Strategy, Facilitation, and Coaching | Strategy 3: Success Matrix, Coaching to Scaling Teams | Action: Practicing 4C’s Coaching, Celebration, Carrying the Work Forward

Participants worked in Skill Practice Groups (SPGs) of 3–4 participants. Each SPG practiced coaching together, recorded their practise, completed homework assignments, and received personalized feedback from their assigned Section Meta-Coach.

Key Learning and Growth Areas

With this program being the first of its kind, we were curious to learn how much the participants improved as coaches. . Participants reported significant growth in several areas when comparing their experiences before and after the program, including:

• Feeling more connected to a global community of organizing coaches. (+50% increase)
• Seeing themselves more strongly as community organizing coaches, rooted in values-based practice.(+41% increase)
• Gaining confidence in balancing one-on-one and group coaching techniques (from “ping pong” to “soccer” facilitation). (+39% increase)
• Strengthening their ability to facilitate strategic campaign planning as part of coaching leadership teams.(+32% increase)

“The snowflake model has really shown me that it is possible to empower others. The key takeaway from coaching has been the importance of actively listening and guide posting.” –COCTP Graduate

Real World Application

After the course, participants shared that they plan to use their coaching skills in their communities, organizations, and campaigns across the world. Several participants shared specific, tangible plans to use the skills they learned in this program. For example, several people intend to change how they facilitate meetings, update their approaches to one-on-ones, and embed practices into launching teams and campaigns. 

“I am currently working with a team leading a campaign in Kenya and in the coming week we’ll be doing power mapping by assessing our resources vis a vis the interests of the politicians.” –Monicah Kamandau, Kenya

“I am working right now with a team of 5 national representatives on our planning for our coaching structure that will support 500 local campaigns by 2028.” -Ellen Holmes, United States

“I’m running a campaign against child trafficking in Ghana right now and that why the skills comes in handy when coaching my team.”– Josephine Aparo, Ghana

Program Satisfaction

• 95% of participants described the program as life-changing or overall positive.
  
• Participants rated their likelihood of recommending the program to a friend 9.4/10.
  
• The highest-rated elements included breakout practice groups, meta-coach feedback, and live modeling of skills.

“The most valuable aspects were the breakout sessions and watching our meta-coaches model the craft live. It inspired us to get on the bike and practice, even when it wasn’t perfect.” — Participant feedback

Opportunities Moving Forward

Participants offered thoughtful recommendations to build on this strong foundation:

• Spend more time on complex strategy and planning concepts. 
• Include more international participants specially Asia Pacific leaders.
• Support non-native English speakers with additional pre-materials.
• Streamlining the use of one complex case study to provide deeper richness in the practice.

We are excited to build on these lessons and continue developing a world-class learning journey for our community organizing coaches!
Read the full evaluation report here.

New Tools and Resources to Support Coaches

Updated Coaches Guide: One of the key outputs of this program is the updated Coaches Guide, now enhanced with example videos that coaches can use while developing their own practice and preparing other coaches. [Find it here.]
New Success Metrics Worksheet: We also introduced a new worksheet to help coaches facilitate team discussions to count success, design mobilization targets, and map team distribution through matrices. 

A Heartfelt Thank You

Thank you to our incredible team of Meta-Coaches and Lead Trainers who made the success of the Community Organizing Coaches Training Program possible.  A special thanks to Lead Trainers Abel Cano, Benedict Hugusson, and Mais Irqsusi, and to Meta-Coaches Celine Lebrun Shaath, Sachiko Osawa, Juman Abujbara, and Project Lead Salma Sameh. Your leadership, generosity, and insightful coaching shaped an environment where participants could grow, take risks, and deepen their practice.

We are also deeply grateful to our 22 participants, whose commitment to learning, reflection, and community building enriched every moment of the program. Your courage and passion are the heartbeat of our global network.

Finally, a special acknowledgement to LCN’s community of practitioners and to Marshall Ganz, whose foundational work in organizing continues to guide and inspire our efforts. Together, we are building a global movement of coaches and organizers committed to driving meaningful, lasting social change.