MERGE Coaching Program

Theory into Practice

Description
MERGE is pleased to offer the coaching component of training as a continuing education supplement for Early Childhood Educators who attend the “Developing Healthy Boys” workshop.

It is led by the same certified trainers who work with the MERGE for EQUALITY – Early Childhood Initiative.  The focus of the coaching sessions is on putting the ideas, values and activities from the “Developing Healthy Boys” training into practice.  Participants are  invited to bring their classroom and family experiences into the sessions to reflect, understand and learn together to implement the concepts from the workshop into their work and home lives.

Desired Outcomes:
There are several outcomes that the coaching sessions seek to achieve.  First is to provide connection among the participants to encourage and support the work of changing the way we raise boys.  A second is to bring about a shared understanding of classroom challenges and successes inspired by the training.  A third is to offer a variety of additional strategies and approaches to issues brought forth by the participants based on the values of the workshop and emanating from the trainers and the other “coaches” – one’s fellow educators!  Finally the ultimate outcome is a deeper understanding of MERGE to promote teachers and parents efforts to raise healthy boys.

Content
The content of the coaching sessions emerges from the training sessions with the opportunity coaching has to go deeper, to be more personal and to provide applications to participants’ work and home life.  As such, the training concepts of the Man Box, the “Story of the Boy” and Healthy Male Socialization are reviewed and connected to real world experiences that are brought to light.  The Co-Constructive Reading model is also a component of the coaching as participants, via homework assignments, are tasked with reading gender related books to their students/children using the approach taught in the workshop.