STORY NO.

130

Coach Revolution

by Gabrielle

Our plan

Imagine you have a school, any type of school -- and in that school you place a young, vibrant, energetic and sometimes quite outrageous life coach that has a passion for young people. If you can imagine this, you will also be able to imagine a school that is turned upside down. Now, place this life coach in a school on a long term basis (a few years), full time, and you allow school students to revolutionize their future forever. Because of this tremendous investment, students suddenly start to see school as a place they can enjoy, not only a place they are forced to go. School becomes a place where there is a support structure for every area of a student’s life to be transformed -- thereby transforming his future forever. In order for one school to be turned upside down, someone that was outrageous and daring enough needed to step to the plate (first, he had to be turned upside down himself by a powerful coach training program). The easy part was finding a school since most schools are fairly open to a new challenge. Bellville High, located in the Southern part of South Africa, was chosen for this project. Unfortunately there were a few challenges that had to be attended to in order for this project to be set in motion, and finding sponsorship was one of them. In partnership with friends, family and the school governing body, enough funds were eventually raised to sponsor this project.

What we did

My first and most important task in the school was to build as many relationships as possible with both children and teachers. Out of these relationships, numerous projects started to rise from the dust. With the help of the students, an office was pimped out with some couches and awesome graffiti, creating a relevant atmosphere for coaching sessions with the students. An interactive support website, designed in a hip and funky way, created an opportunity for students to interact with each other, and myself, about various issues they struggled with. Currently, another project is being launched that involves the whole school and the community. It aims to fight poverty in Ethiopia and works in partnership with the Hand of Hope project managed by Joyce Meyer, as well as the Living Ball project managed by former Springbok rugby player Louis Koen. We have also had a Free Hugs Campaign as well as our own Spiderman campaign.

Our results

Outrageous projects have outrageous results. The Coach Revolution project is moving closer and closer to the point where individuals are feeling so empowered and inspired, just by being accepted for who they are, that they choose to be driven by principles and goals instead of peer pressure. Teachers benefit from this since they have to apply less discipline in the classroom. Since seeds sometimes take quite a while to grow, many of the results have not even been seen yet. Through the fund raising, thousands of African children will experience joy in ways we cannot even imagine. Besides all of this -- it changed my life forever!

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Maxwell Allen
Oakland, CA