- Date
- 21 Mar 2016
- Tags
- Girls and/or Women , Sport And Active Society
GoGirlGo
BUILDING HEALTHY, ACTIVE, CONFIDENT GIRLS
The Women’s Sports Foundation’s GoGirlGo! programme focuses on improving the social and emotional health and well-being of girls by combining sports and physical activity, leadership and education.
| Location |
USA |
| Organisation | Women’s Sports Foundation |
| Start-end date |
2001 – ongoing |
| Target group age |
Girls aged 5-13 |
| Reach |
Nearly 1 million girls to date |
| Partners |
Private individuals, foundations and corporations and federal grants through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention |
| Key facts |
Since 2001, GoGirlGo! has provided more than 1,200 cash grants totalling more than USD 6 million to community organisations across the U.S.
|
| For inspiration |
www.womenssportsfoundation.org/gogirlgo |
Download the file of the case study
SUMMARY
GoGirlGo! was created in 2001 in direct response to the epidemic of childhood obesity and is a sports-based leadership curriculum that serves as an educational intervention and supports girls’ health and wellness in childhood and early womanhood. GoGirlGo!’s unique, free education programme, available in multiple age-appropriate versions, uses the personal experiences of champion athletes and celebrities to educate girls about health-risk behaviours and life lessons relating to the girl and her place in the world. In addition to organisations that have received grants, thousands of community organisations have received the GoGirlGo!’s curriculum kit free of charge. To date, this multi-level programme support has helped nearly 14,000 schools and organisations to deliver the programme to almost one million girls.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
Different curricula for different ages
The GoGirlGo! curriculum is available in different age-appropriate versions. Topics such as body image, bullying, family issues and smoking are delivered through turnkey GoGirlGo! kits. For the participating girls, each kit contains a GoGirls! Guide to Life and a GoGirls! Scrapbook in which they can track their activities and results.
Extensive resources for participants, programme leaders and parents
The GoGirlGo! programme offers extensive resources for participating girls, adult programme leaders and parents. In addition to the Guide to Life and Scrapbook, participating girls have access to numerous tips and tools via the programme’s website, including a girls’ sport reading list, healthy snack list and a sleep quiz. Adult programme leaders receive an instructional guide to assist them in successfully running the curriculum and a Parents’ Guide has been developed to give parents some insight into the latest knowledge about motivating their daughters to become active and creating a positive and supportive environment for girls.
SPORT FOR ALL OBJECTIVES
Promote sport and physical activity
GoGirlGo! was created in direct response to the epidemic of childhood obesity. The programme serves as an educational intervention aiming to teach young girls the importance of physical activity. As girls across the United States are becoming less active and subsequently less healthy, the programme aims to improve the health of girls and keeping them involved in physical activity.
Improve public health and well-being
Girls who are physically active are less likely than their inactive peers to become obese, develop diabetes or have other physical and emotional health issues. They also have higher self-esteem, which in turn results in fewer teen pregnancies and eating disorders.
HOW IS THE PROGRAMME COMMUNICATED?
The programme is communicated via the Women’s Sports Foundation’s website, on social media, via promotional campaigns and through press releases.
HOW IS THE PROGRAMME EVALUATED?
The programme is evaluated via different tools. The Youth Athletic Fitness Survey (YAFS) for girls aged 10+ is a practical four-page questionnaire that contains 27 distinct measures of girls’ backgrounds, behaviours, interests, attitudes and identities, and is administered at the end of the GoGirlGo! programme. In addition to the survey there are qualitative focus groups, a leadership training survey and a programme leader feedback survey.