Women and Gender Equity in Coaching Program: Evaluation Report

Abstract

Thanks to a grant from the Government of Canada’s Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) department, the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), in collaboration with a University of Ottawa research team, launched the WAGE Mentorship Program in January 2025 to support the federal government’s goal of achieving gender equity in sport by 2035. This multi-year initiative, funded through March 2026, aims to advance women’s representation in coaching by building a national mentorship program for women coaches across 16 sport organizations. The program has engaged 32 mentees, 32 mentors, and 16 sport leaders through mentorship pairings (mentee-mentor) and two Communities of Practice (CoPs; sport leaders and mentors). Together, participants were building a truly inclusive, relational, and sustainable mentorship environment that encourages women’s participation and advancement in coaching. In line with the program goals, the pre-program report indicated that mentors aimed to build trust, share knowledge, and treat mentorship as leadership development, while mentees hoped to strengthen their confidence, gain exposure to new opportunities, and form meaningful mentor relationships. Sport leaders entered the program focused on creating enabling environments, fostering a mentorship culture, and developing sustainable structures. Midway through, the report showed a shift from intention to lived experience: mentors described their own growth alongside their support for mentees, including increased systemic awareness, which had already been present but received more attention; mentees reported transformative gains in confidence and leadership while also acknowledging the challenge of slow organizational change; and sport leaders highlighted a learning by doing approach, relying on peer learning and beginning to turn practical lessons into policy and longer-term structures. In parallel, and as part of the WAGE program evaluation, the research team undertook four reviews to ensure program resources remained current and responsive. This included a literature review on mentorship for women coaches to identify evidence-informed practices, a review of the NCCP Mentorship Module required for the WAGE program mentors to assess alignment with both the evidence and program goals, and a review of the three WAGE role-based guides for mentees, mentors, and sport administrators using participant experiences alongside the research. Additionally, based on the mentee guide review, updates were made to the Training for Effective Mentees workshop. Together, this process helped ensure that WAGE resources are current, practical, and aligned with participants’ needs, with emphasis on mentorship as a safe, inclusive social learning space supported by clear roles, reflective practice, and collaborative goal-setting. End-of-program findings indicate that the WAGE program operated as more than a mentoring match; it functioned as a capacity-building process that shaped participants’ development, relationships, and the conditions that support mentorship in sport. The mentees described sustained gains in confidence, leadership, and professional identity, supported by a mentee-driven structure that helped them set goals, reflect on progress, and define success in ways that could be personalized to diverse needs. The mentors described parallel growth, strengthening mentoring skills and leadership capacity, while emphasizing relational outcomes such as growing together, building rapport for long-term relationships, and the meaningful experience of witnessing mentee growth. The sport leaders described the CoP as a key mechanism for program impact, using it to reflect, learn from peers, and translate day-to-day mentoring practice into clearer strategies and more sustainable structures within their organizations. Across roles, the participants consistently emphasized that outcomes depended on the broader environment: sport leaders were positioned as the backbone of the program because their coordination, responsiveness, and resourcing shaped opportunities and support for mentor–mentee pairs. The participants also noted that using program resources consistently could be challenging, highlighting an opportunity to provide interactive tools, and follow-up support. Finally, they highlighted future-facing priorities, including an in-person wrap-up event (which has been incorporated into the program in response to this feedback) and longer-term planning, to sustain connections beyond the program and strengthen lasting impact. This final report explains how the project began and concluded, and it describes how, throughout the project, mentoring resources were strengthened and tailored to participants’ needs.