The Strengthening Coaching with the Objective to Raise Equality (SCORE) project, led by ENGSO, had its kick-off meeting in Stockholm on 16-17 February 2015. The project promotes equal opportunities, namely gender equality in coaching, and focuses on increasing the number of employed and volunteer female coaches at all levels of sport as well as enhancing knowledge on gender equality in coach education. The project is targeted at sports and coaching organisations at all levels, more specifically coaches, trainers, former athletes, volunteers and decision-makers in the field of coaching. The SCORE project is supported by the Erasmus+ Sport Programme.
The first day of the kick-off meeting was dedicated to introductory purposes, for the members from various organisations to get to know each other, as well as to some administrative issues. The second day started with a brainstorming session on the toolkit “awareness pack”, which would be developed during the course of the project. The toolkit will contain tools targeted at both the sports organisations and coaches. The session was led by the experts, Sarah Milner and Julie Mackintosh, from sports coach UK.
Another main element of the project is the development of an education programme for mentors, which will be executed during the project. After going through the education programme, the mentors will assist potential female coaches in their respective countries in developing the mentees’ professional and personal growth. Discussions on the education for mentors were facilitated by Satu Kaski, an expert psychologist, who and has been involved in mentoring projects in coaching in Finland.
The SCORE project will be a two-year project and will be finalised by the end of 2016. It boasts a comprehensive partner network including the following organisations:
* sports coach UK
* Finnish Coaches Association
* International Council of Coaching Excellence (ICCE)
* European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE)
* Sport and Citizenship
* European University Sports Association (EUSA)
* German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB)
* Swedish Sports Confederation (RF)
* National Olympic Committee of Croatia (NOC Croatia)
* Lithuanian Union of Sports Federations (LUSF)
* Cyprus Sports Organisation (CSO)
* Portuguese Sports Confederation (CDP)
