Where Coaching Meets Change: The Girls Positive and Safe Coaching Pathway at the TAFISA World Congress

When ten coaches and trainers from across the globe gathered in Prague for the TAFISA World Congress, they brought with them something no policy document or programme report could fully capture: lived experience. For the Girls Positive and Safe Coaching Pathway, the Congress was more than a milestone – it was a moment of proof.

A Pathway, A Stage, A Movement

Launched to transform how coaches work with girls in sport, the Girls Positive and Safe Coaching Pathway is built on a simple but powerful belief: that when you change how a coach shows up, you change how a girl experiences sport. From safeguarding and inclusion to trust, voice, and psychological safety, the Pathway equips coaches with the values, tools, and mindset to create environments where girls don't just participate – they thrive.

At this year's TAFISA World Congress in Prague, that belief came to life on one of the biggest stages in global Sport for All.

Alumni Impact & Storytelling: Voices from the Pathway

The centrepiece of the Pathway's presence at the Congress was the plenary session Alumni Impact & Storytelling: Voices from the Girls Positive and Safe Coaching Pathway – a powerful, hour-long session that placed alumni voices at the heart of the conversation.

Moderated by Ytannia Wiggins of CANOC (Barbados), the session opened with a keynote by Elena Korf of Nike Inc., who set the tone with a clear message: safe, empowering coaching is not optional – it is the foundation of long-term impact for girls and young women in sport. When you invest in coaches, you invest in the futures of the girls they reach.

What followed was a panel discussion that brought the room to attention. The panel brought together Nina Liza Buenaflor Javier (WFDF, Philippines), Boitshwarelo Butale (Women and Sport Botswana), Fathime Tibu (Moving the Goalposts, Kenya), and Aditi Chinmay Athaley (ITTF Foundation, India). Each from a different country, each carrying a different story, they shared how the Pathway had shifted their practice, their communities, and the girls in their care. Together, their stories illustrated something the data alone cannot show: that the Pathway's impact is not theoretical. It is visible, personal, and multiplying.

Closing the session, Pathway Regional Trainer Rohan Pereira called on the global sport community to move beyond isolated interventions and build stronger networks of shared learning – and to intentionally create more platforms where coaches and practitioners can share their lived experiences, not just as participants in programmes, but as knowledge partners shaping the future of sport itself.

 

Ten Voices, One Community

Beyond the plenary, the Congress offered something equally significant – the rare opportunity to bring ten Pathway coaches and trainers together in the same space. For many, it was the first time meeting in person the peers they had trained alongside, learned from, and been inspired by across different countries and contexts.

That gathering was itself a statement: the Pathway is not a collection of isolated programmes. It is a growing community of practitioners, bound by shared values and a shared commitment to the girls they coach.

 

What the Congress Made Clear

Sport has the power to change lives – but only when the environments in which it happens are safe, inclusive, and built for the people in them. The Girls Positive and Safe Coaching Pathway exists to ensure that coaches are the architects of those environments, not the barriers to them.

Prague showed what that looks like in practice. It showed coaches who have done the work, communities that have felt the difference, and a global network that is only growing stronger.

The work continues – and Prague showed just how far it has already come.