May 2024 —  Over the past three years, CHJS has worked with the Chicago Bulls Community to create more girls-centered programming throughout the city. Through the Girls Coaching Development Program, community leaders stepped up as coaches and learned how best to support and coach young female athletes as brain-based coaches in healing-centered sport spaces.

The coaches learned positive coaching principles and how to modify skill-building techniques designed specifically to work for girls at any level of experience. As the girls in sport movement gets larger and larger, it’s important we help create safe spaces for our young girls.

Check this excerpt from the Chicago Bulls Community Annual Report:

The Bulls partnered with the Center for Healing and Justice through Sport, a national nonprofit working to provide inclusive access to sports for youth, to create and launch the Girls Coaching Development Program (GCDP) for coaches of athletes who identify as girls. … Young women’s social and emotional needs differ from that of young men’s – a fact that remains true on the court. Considering this, coaches who work with girls should be equipped with the knowledge and resources needed to best support them, which the Bulls’ program aims to provide to encourage the participation and retention of girls in sports.

Remember the Coaching Girls guide? We created this playbook with our friends at Nike to serve as an easy to use tool for coaches on how to create the best possible sport environments for every girl. The pillars of a positive, girls-centered sport spaces include: celebrate connection, support competition, shout out bravery not perfect, award progress over outcomes, and ensure the playing space is made for girls. Make sure to check out the guide, which is available in both English and Spanish.

Learn more about the Bulls initiative from our Chicago Program Manager, Ivan Ortega. Interested in leveraging your brand or team to uplift the community? Reach out to our Director of National Partnerships, Chris Reed.