NEW YORK, April 17th, 2024 – On April 17th, WeCOACH and VOICEINSPORT (VIS) have announced a new community partnership aimed at keeping girls in sport and developing more women coaches in the sports industry. VIS, a woman-founded digital platform providing mentorship, content & mental health services, and WeCOACH, a non profit organization dedicated to recruiting, advancing and retaining women coaches, are committed to driving change across the industry for girls and women in sports.
“To keep girls in sport, we need to rethink the ecosystem and that includes dramatically increasing the number of women coaches,” said Founder and CEO of VOICEINSPORT, Stef Strack. “It is imperative that we increase the educational content that young women athletes have access to during their journey and there is no better way to do that than through a community of dedicated women coaches. I’m proud to announce a new community partner with WeCOACH that will help arm so many coaches and young women athletes with resources and services that will help keep girls in sport.”
In this partnership the VOICEINSPORT platform will unlock mentoring services and free educational content to over 15,000 girls in sport through the 2,000+ coaches of girls teams in the WeCOACH community.
The services will include access to free mentoring thanks to the VOICEINSPORT x WNBA Changemaker partnership announced in February 7th, where 16 WNBA players currently serving as VIS Mentors will continue mentoring on the VIS platform, including Ariel Atkins (Washington Mystics), Aliyah Boston (Indiana Fever), Alysha Clark (Las Vegas Aces), Natasha Cloud (Phoenix Mercury), Izzy Harrison (Chicago Sky), Lexie Hull (Indiana Fever), Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (New York Liberty), Haley Jones (Atlanta Dream), Nneka Ogwumike (Seattle Storm), Satou Sabally (Dallas Wings), Katie Lou Samuelson (Indiana Fever), Erica Wheeler (Indiana Fever), Zia Cooke (LA Sparks), Kayla McBride (Minnesota Lynx), Brionna Jones (Connecticut Sun) and Brianna Turner (Chicago Sky).
Launching this month, the VOICEINSPORT platform will provide access to services to thousands of girls in sport through the support of the coaches in the WeCOACH network. Since its launch in 2019, the VIS mission of bringing more visibility to women athletes and elevating their voices has been central to building out the platform’s services with over 300+ professional athlete VIS Mentors and 95+ VIS Experts in Sport Psychology, Nutrition and Women’s Health.
WeCOACH is the first of a select group of community partners that will be announced over the next few months that will benefit from the VOICEINSPORT partnership with the WNBA. WeCOACH member coaches will sign up their teams at VOICEINSPORT and unlock professional athlete mentoring and educational content for their young girls and women athletes. Throughout the year, the VIS platform and the 16 WNBA player VIS Mentors will conduct over 144 Live VIS Virtual Mentoring Sessions for athletes in the WeCOACH community sponsored by the WNBA Changemakers.
"We are honored to join forces with VOICEINSPORT, aligning our missions to empower and elevate girls and women in sports. Together, we're not just breaking barriers; we're building bridges of opportunity and equality. By merging the impactful mentoring initiatives of VIS along with WeCOACH's dedication to advancing women coaches, we're forging a path towards a future where every girl has the support, mentorship, and opportunities she deserves to thrive both on and off the field. Together, we will MOVE the NUMBERS,” said Vanessa Fuchs, WeCOACH CEO."
WeCOACH established its mission in 2011 to recruit, advance, and retain women coaches in all sports and levels. Prior to Title IX, over 90% of women’s collegiate sports teams were coached by women. Today, over 50 years later, the data indicates that number has decreased to 46% in Division I, 41% across all three NCAA Divisions, with only 7% women head coaches of color (all divisions). At the youth level, the data is hard to estimate, approximately less than 20% of teams are coached by women.
WeCOACH is focused on Moving the Numbers and a partnership with VOICEINSPORT, the largest global community of professional athlete mentors, will help to create an even bigger pipeline of talent into the sports ecosystem. In 2024, this community partnership between WeCOACH and VOICEINSPORT will start by tackling one key part of their collective mission, to keep girls in the game.
For more information on the resources that coaches can unlock for their teams click here.
For more information on the VOICEINSPORT x WNBA Changemaker Partnership click here.
Reach out to team@voiceinsport.com for more information about getting your team onboarded.
About VOICEINSPORT
VOICEINSPORT, the global sports company, provides a community-based platform for digital services in mental health, nutrition, sport science and mentoring from pro athletes to keep girls and women in sport. The VOICEINSPORT membership comes with free access to original articles written by women athletes, weekly podcasts, advocacy tools to drive change and a community forum. Paid services include a mentoring platform designed to increase the visibility to pro & collegiate athlete role models and access to both clinical & non-clinical sessions with the top 80 experts in sport psychology, sport nutrition and women’s health. Founded in 2019, VOICEINSPORT is based in NYC and is self-funded by sports industry Executive and Advocate Stef Strack. Visit www.voiceinsport.com for the latest company news and follow @voiceinsport on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X and LinkedIn.
About WeCoach
Founded in 2011, WeCOACH is a one-of-a-kind 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to recruiting, advancing, and retaining women coaches in all sports and levels through year-round professional growth & leadership development programs. Prior to Title IX, over 90% of women’s collegiate sports teams were coached by women. Today, over 50 years later, the data indicates that number has decreased to 46% in Division I, 41% across all three NCAA Divisions, with only 7% women head coaches of color (Division I). Only 5% women coach men's teams. At the youth level, the data is hard to estimate, approximately less than 20% of teams are coached by women. WeCOACH launched MOVE the NUMBERS in 2022 to help change the landscape for women coaches and the student-athletes they lead. If she can see her, she can be her. For more information visit MOVE the NUMBERS.