C4E is a program of i.b.mee., a U.S. non-profit organization founded by Dr. Meg Hanshaw that began in 2011. After a decade of in-the-school research, i.b.mee. began funding the building of an infrastructure that will support the shift in the education system to one that is healthy and empowering. For this infrastructure, they are building multiple interactive websites, each dedicated to informing, engaging and educating the people who are involved with the education system: Teachers & Staff, School Leaders, Pre-Service Teachers, Community Members, High School and College Students, and Parents.
i.b.mee.’s training supports educators in learning the coaching approach as the fundamental dialogue, mindset, and way of being in the classroom with students. It also gives them a step-by-step process of how to shift their classrooms (and schools) into a new-paradigm learning environment where everyone has the best chance of thriving. The mission of i.b.mee. is to bring to life a healthy and empowering education system, so all students and their teachers thrive. They do this by offering educators a personalized learning adventure of online and live training called Empowerment Education, where they train to become trauma-informed, life & learning coaches who specialize in social-emotional learning, high quality relationships & well-being. (In later phases, i.b.mee. offers the training to high school and college students, and parents.)
If you want to go fast, go alone;
African proverb
if you want to go far, go together
C4E Beginnings
In Sweden in 2019, Martin Richards started the not-for-profit project called C4E with the mission to connect coaches with educators, in coaching partnerships, so that educators could have the experience of being coached in hopes of beginning to use more of the coaching approach in their classrooms. We reached out to coaches and signed them up to give four hours of coaching to an educator. They loved it!
Then something wonderful and challenging happened. The number of coaches and educators joining the C4E project grew, the task of running the project became too large for Martin, working part time, to cover.
At the start of 2021, Martin and Meg partnered to make C4E one of the stepping-stones to becoming a coach in the classroom for the i.b.mee. program, because educators being coached is a KEY COMPONENT of them being able to use the coaching-approach with their students individually and in groups. Martin then became the Director of the C4E program for i.b.mee. and continued recruiting coaches and training. New C4E coaches now sign up via the new i.b.mee. Coaching4Educators.org website. There is a updated coaching portal on this website that allows educators to choose their coaches automatically. Coaches who coach for C4E come from around the world. C4E coaches are asked to have at least 70 hours of coaching under their belt, and be certified, and at least in the process of becoming credentialed. We have just begun to sign up coaches and are headed towards 50, with our goal being 500 over the next couple of years.
Along the way, Martin had learned two important lessons: (i) educators need an introduction to how to be coached before they meet with their C4E Coach, and (ii) once they had been coached, educators wanted to learn more coaching skills like asking powerful questions to use with their students. Martin brought to i.b.mee. one of his courses called Listening from the Heart and together, Martin and Meg shifted it to an online introduction to coaching for educators, and then created another online course called Empowerment Coaching Basics, which gives educators an introduction to coaching skills. To complete the Empowerment Education System training and be a certified coach in the classroom, there are three levels of events and Adventures, educators will complete.
We are moving away from the education system and its rules and one-size fits all skills being the most important focus….to a learning system where the value of the individual human being is more important than the skills and the rules.
Dr. Meg Hanshaw
As we build, we see everyday that the shift of the education system has already begun. Questions have been raised about validity of high stakes testing, the school to prison pipeline, teachers’ mental health, students’ motivation and willingness to be in schools; and many other long-term damaging issues that are challenging the credibility and viability of the current system.
We see inspiring examples of schools that employ coaches for their staff, and teachers who are coach-trained to better support their students. We see schools that are trauma-informed and are investing in training and developing their staff so they can support each other and their students.
We do our best to research both sides of the shift and present our findings in research papers on the website as one of the many resources.
It takes a team. We Need You
As we continue building the online infrastructure, we are increasing and strengthening the number of resources and Adventures that are on the learning platform. We will always need to enroll more coaches who want to play a central role in giving educators the experience of being coached.
So far, so good
Please take a look at our 3 new websites. Explore this one (C4E) more and please sign up for our Roundtable to find out more about C4E and coaching educators. If you can’t attend because of the time, please contact us and let us know, so we can find another time to meet you! We will be adding new Roundtable times as the demand increases.
ibmee.org is our main nonprofit website. As you click on the links you may find certain parts are not quite finished, yet. We are building the 4th learning portal right now called the Body-Mind Adventure Center. We expect to be launching the first two levels of our Empowerment Education System this fall 2022. We are delighted and grateful to be this far along now. All the texts, pictures, audios and videos take weeks of discussions to choose, to write, rewrite, perform, edit and post. But it is worth the effort. As we watch this massive, complex and powerful infrastructure grow we remember that we are building a foundation for the generations to come.
EErev.org is our Empowerment Education Revolution movement website. There are many ways you can begin to be a part of the continual shift of the current education system into one more healthy and empowering. Please join us.
The Empowerment Education learning portal called the Body-Mind Adventure Center, is where educators will sign up for courses and events to progress themselves to learn the Empowerment Education teaching and coaching system, and gain the knowledge and skills to shift education by becoming trauma-informed life and learning coaches in the classroom and school.The Body Mind Adventure Center roll out is scheduled right now to begin to roll out in the Autumn of 2022.
