In 2023, Settle made the decision to rename our Programme Officers, the accredited coaches who work with young people, as Settle Coaches – and here’s why:

With all frontline staff and managers completing the MOE Coaching Accreditation, coaching has always been at the heart of everything we do at Settle. Whether supporting young people to set long term goals or empowering them to face the day-to-day challenges of living independently, our Settle Coaches embed the coaching framework into every interaction within a young person’s Settle Journey.

Settle’s Interim CEO Aimee Hardaker gives reasoning for this change perfectly when talking about how coaching encompasses Settle’s values, saying:

“Anyone that works with young people will often hear young people share that they are always told what to do. Told how to manage their money, told what jobs they should go on to do. We probably can all recall an experience where this happened to us. This can be incredibly disempowering and can prevent young people from developing the necessary skills to thrive in life. Coaching is so important at Settle as it takes the exact opposite approach. A Settle Coach asks young people what goals they have and this puts the power to achieve and develop in their hands.”

At Settle we want to see young people thrive and feeling a sense of control over their own lives, and we believe that coaching helps them get there.

So, what’s in a name? At Settle we want the language we use to describe ourselves to accurately reflect not only our values, but the work that we do, and it's for this reason that the change from Programme Officer to Settle Coach feels important. When looking forward to this change, Settle Coach Amy reflected:

“I’m really excited that we’re changing our role title to Settle Coach as it captures perfectly our commitment to putting young people in charge of their journey. Not only are we accredited Coaches here at Settle, we really believe in the coaching model. This is because we have seen first-hand that a coaching approach empowers young people to achieve positive outcomes that matter to them, as well as the skills and confidence to carry with them after completing our programme.”

Coaching isn’t just important to us in our frontline work, we also use this approach in the way that we work together as a team. Managers are encouraged to use a coaching style to help Settle Coaches and other staff members reach the best outcomes for young people. At Settle we feel it is important to reflect our frontline approaches across all of our work where we can to ensure we are true to our values.

If you’d like to hear more about how we incorporate coaching into our work, feel free to get in touch with us via hello@wearesettle.org

To learn more about what young people can expect on the programme, and meet our Settle Coaches, you can explore our new page all about starting your Settle journey here.