READY is a peer-to-peer coaching program for young adults going through times of transition. It teaches them the skills they need to empower one another to become the versions of themselves they aspire to be, giving them a chance to support their peers through life’s difficulties and opportunities, and helping them discover the meaning they’ve felt lacking through all their experiences.

We take executive coaching principles and apply them to a cohort of young people, teaching them how to use these techniques to support each other. 

We orchestrate an experience in that in a non-cliché, meaningful way, offers young people a place to be both vulnerable and helpful to one another—beyond just a ‘sharing circle’. Yes, members can share what is happening in their life in ways they otherwise would not have, finding commonality and connection, reminding each other they are not alone in their adversity. But even more so, READY’s coaching techniques allow members to actually help one another figure out where those challenges stem from and what to do moving forward. Using real, proven tools that are typically reserved for professionals with degrees, members contribute to real, lasting change in one another’s lives.

In issue processing, we don’t give advice. Instead, we ask clarifying and thoughtful, guided questions about a person’s timely issue or opportunity. As you ask these questions, you reflect on your own experiences, so both the person processing their issue and the listener or facilitator explore a common concept of adversity we all face, moving forward through it together.

As facilitators, our job is create an environment where young people can be the catalysts for each other’s well-being and growth, giving them the courage to help one another succeed. Through hundreds of hours of training experience issue processing themselves, facilitators are uniquely equipped to be the ‘conductor’ of this complex modem of conversation amongst less-experienced participants.

Facilitators are not lecturers. Rather, a facilitator’s job is to listen intently and, when appropriate, step in to steer conversation or lines of questioning amongst members. This allows the members to be the main driver of change in each other’s lives…feeling the unbelievable sense of purpose that comes with helping someone they care about at a crucial point in their life.

We also believe these complex coaching techniques are best learned through action, which requires repetition, iteration, and practice. The passive role of the facilitator affords the members the time and space to improve at issue processing at the most effective pace and highest quality.

A crucial concept since READY’s foundation, and how we start every meeting, is this: if you’re going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. So, we begin by encouraging our facilitators—20- to 25-year-olds who’ve gone through this program dozens or hundreds of times—to be vulnerable about something in their lives. Participants, even those new to the call, get to listen and see what vulnerability can accomplish in the lives of others. They are then given the platform to let their vulnerability have impact on others, and see the value their story holds. 

Many people think talking is enough to make a change in their lives, but only you can make that change—others can’t do it for you. So, we use the group to hold people accountable, like a sports team or a classroom. At the end of their sessions, we help them brainstorm something tangible they can accomplish that week.

In READY, your performance isn’t measured by the outcome, but by your willingness to try. We’re really trying to transform the mindset with which young people approach life. You have an obligation to take action and face what you fear because, if you don’t, someone in your life misses the chance to be inspired by your bravery.

People blame many things for young people’s struggles—depression, anxiety, failure to launch—but I think it’s a crisis of meaning, a feeling of ‘Do I matter?’ READY is a place where young people realize they have infinite value to those around them, and engaging in that process becomes the joy of their lives.