Inspiring Girl Empowerment with Life Skills, Confidence and Physical Activity [Podcast Series]
[:54] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Dr. Allie Riley
Dr. Allie Riley is Chief Program Officer at Girls on the Run.
Her research, program design, evaluation and implementation has all been in the physical activity-based youth development space.
[1:13] Girls on the Run Introduction
“Girls on the Run is a physical activity-based positive youth development program. And we are using running and other physical activity to teach life skills so managing emotions, resolving conflict. We do that in small teams of girls across the country. So we have over 170 local councils that deliver the program in their community. And teams are happening primarily in the after school space.”
[2:54] Volunteer coach model
“So we engage about 40,000 volunteer coaches each year to bring Girls on the Run to communities so truly could not do it without our amazing volunteer coaches.”
[4:02] Empowering girls with life skills, confidence and increased physical activity
“So I think, from top to bottom, and across, we are all focused on empowering girls around these same goals of learning life skills, building confidence, and increasing physical activity levels.”
[8:18] Building confidence
“So I think we want to provide those tools and resources and build up confidence and give really concrete tools so that as they enter into adolescence, middle school adolescence, they are equipped with the tools they need to navigate these declines in confidence and other challenges that they'll face.”
[10:54] Centering the voices of girls
“So I think those two things are key and whether it's a curriculum-based program like ours or a sport-based program, how can you center the voices of girls and ask them what they want as you're thinking about programming. So I think we start there. And then, you know, we weave in fun games and activities, topics that are important to them…”
[16:17] Evidence-based program design
“We want to make sure we're making an impact. We're reaching a lot of girls. We want to reach a lot more girls, but we want to make sure that every kid is growing life skills, confidence, and increasing physical activities and all the things that our program is designed to, to deliver on.”
[20:28] Evaluating program impact
“And through that study, we saw 97% of girls develop critical life skills throughout the course of the program. A stat that I think this group of listeners will love is that girls who are least active at the beginning of the season increase their physical activity level by 40%. And they maintain that at the follow-up three months out.”
[25:42] Middle school curriculum
“It is focused on, it's all centered around the girl wheel. So whole girl, whole child development, and provides even more space, voice and choice for kids and having them facilitate parts on their own.”
[27:19] Call to action
“So if you are interested in Girls on the Run specifically, you can look for it in your community. If you go to our website, you can find, figure out if it's in your community. Encourage someone at your school to bring it to the school If it's already there, sign up. And if you can, coach, obviously, that is amazing as well.”
