Frontpage
  News
  Events
  Forums

   Global News and Information      USA in One      South Africa in One      New Zealand in One      UK in One      Canada in One      Ireland in One      Denmark in One      Germany in One      Finland in One      Sweden in One      Australia in One      Europe in One      Namibia in One      Africa in One

Us Girls Alive launch

US Girls Alive iniative

Department of Health provides £400,000 to fund ground-breaking new female-focused volunteer programme targeting disadvantaged communities

Us Girls, the female-focused sports programme, will be rolling out a pioneering new national scheme designed to improve the well-being of young women living in 15 selected areas of health need in England. The initiative, Us Girls Alive, is a new strand of the existing Us Girls sports participation programme – which is led by the sports charity StreetGames. It will support young female volunteers to assist in the development of Us Girls Alive clubs and the signposting to local physical activity programmes. The scheme will run until September 2015.

With £395,839 in funding from the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund from the Department of Health, Us Girls Alive will promote volunteering as the key to health improvements for young women living in disadvantaged communities. As a direct result of the funding, 120 young female volunteers will create and manage thirty new Us Girls Alive clubs across England. Known as ‘motivators’, the volunteers will arrange and coordinate opportunities for physical activity, with each club having its own scheduled sessions at times appropriate for their communities. As well as sport, the ‘motivators’ will be involved in providing inclusive and informative activities that combine social activity with health improvement; such as healthy cooking, weight management and sexual health.

Jane Ashworth OBE, CEO of StreetGames, said: “We believe passionately in providing sports opportunities for young people in disadvantaged areas. We also are aware of the even greater disparity in uptake in sport between young men and young women and wanted to do something about it.

“The Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund (HSCVF) funding from the Department of Health will allow us to develop a vital new component to the Us Girls national sports programme supported by Sports Lottery Funding. The programme is a great success but we understand that developing young women skills, confidence and self-esteem are central to the sustainability of the programme moving forward.

“Through the HSCVF-funded Us Girls Alive these young women will help to encourage their friends and peers to be active and will be advocates of taking a positive view in developing a healthy lifestyle. A new approach to developing activity for young women alongside other lifestyle issues will be discovered and shared across the relevant networks.”

The scheme will run until 2015 and will be rolled out across fifteen locations, each containing two clubs: Liverpool, Manchester, Walsall, Wigan, Newcastle, Hastings, Birmingham, Chorley, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Stoke, Lincoln, Penwith, Hammersmith and Thanet.

Trackbacks

  1. […] Us Girls Alive launch is a post from: UK in One […]

Speak Your Mind

*