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Girls Powered – Greater Manchester

Sporting Equals has been funded to deliver a four-year project with The Sweaty Betty Foundation to deliver a city-based model that supports ethnically diverse women and girls engaging in sport and movement, and research and helps the sector better understand the barriers that ethnically diverse women and girls face when accessing sporting opportunities.

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The challenge

The gender play gap, drop off rate in physical activity for teenage girls, accessible clothing for ethnically diverse women and girls, access of female-only safe spaces for women and girls of ethnic diversity, lack of diverse sports coaches for ethnical diverse women and girls to be coached by, and aspire to be.

The solution

Creating a model to:

  • support grassroots organisations in direct delivery to create safe spaces for girls to engage in physical activity
  • access organizational capacity building workshops to empower grassroots organisations to become sustainable and financially secure
  • provide workshops and coaching courses for women and girls to step up and become sports coaches and future leaders in sport
  • work with a sports brand to design and create accessible clothing for ethnically diverse women and girls
  • create opportunities for the women and girls to step into storytelling roles to share their journeys through the programme – content creation campaign.

The impact

  • 51 ethically diverse young female coaches trained and supported through coaching placements 
  • 832 girls regularly engaged in a diverse range of sports, including skiing, archery, football, cricket, mountain biking, squash and netball
  • nine female community leaders supported to take up leadership and decision-making roles in civil society or government
  • an effective and sustainable delivery model that can be transferred to another city.

How is the new approach being sustained?

The 10 grassroots community clubs have received an organizational capacity-building support programme as part of this programme to ensure that they can continue to deliver this project as a collective once funding of the project finishes.

Lessons learned

There are several lessons learned, around grassroots engagement of women and girls, and also capacity building organisations.

Contact

Gemma Parry, [email protected]