'This Girl Can’ makes popular return - The Redditch Standard

'This Girl Can’ makes popular return

Redditch Editorial 27th Mar, 2020   0

WOMEN and girls across the county have been encouraged to unleash their inner beginner as the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign returns to Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

To kickstart the regional campaign, women and girls joined the global celebration of active women at parkrun’s special event ahead of International Women’s Day the following day.

Student ‘This Girl Can’ champions from St Mary’s RC High supported a female volunteer workforce at Ross-on-Wye.

Meanwhile, students, teachers, mums and children from Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College donned their purple and walked, jogged and buggy ran their way through the muddy 5K course at Worcester Woods.




Female staff also represented the Sports Partnership Herefordshire & Worcestershire team at Arrow Valley (Redditch), Worcester Woods and Cheltenham parkrun events.

Nationally, 10,000 more women took part in the International Women’s Day event than on a typical Saturday, with more than 1,300 participating for the very first time.


More than 70,000 women and girls walked, jogged or ran 5km at parkruns across the country and the day also brought the highest number of female volunteers ever recorded at parkrun.

Helping to champion the campaign and spread the message across Herefordshire and Worcestershire were a mixture of high and secondary schools in receipt of funding from Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

These included Trinity High School (Redditch), South Bromsgrove High School and Prince Henry’s High School (Evesham).

Funding was used to transform PE and extra-curricular delivery through ‘This Girl Can’ – a campaign to get women and girls moving, regardless of their shape, size or ability.

As PE and sport were revolutionised for the week, students had the opportunity to take part in non-traditional sports including rock-climbing, golf, clubbercise, roller disco, rugby and yoga.

The campaign is not limited to school sport. New for 2020, Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire will be working with healthcare providers, as well as pre and post-natal groups, to support new mothers to increase their confidence to become more active.

Huw Griffiths, Project Manager (Children and Young People) at Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire, said: “We know girls in particular experience a fear of being judged, whether that’s because they feel they’re not good enough or don’t have the right kit to wear, or it could be they don’t wish to get sweaty in front of others or be laughed at.

“We want to break down these barriers for our young women and help them uncover what their motivations may be for taking part in sport and physical activity.

“This Girl Can directly tackles the fear of judgement that, according to research, stops so many women and girls from taking part in physical activity.

“It also shows you don’t have to be good at sport and exercise to benefit from all the positive feelings physical activity can bring.”

If you have a story around how physical activity or sport has supported you to create a positive change to your lifestyle or helped you through a challenging situation, share it at bit.ly/TGC-Case-Study.

For more on This Girl Can, visit sportspartnershiphw.co.uk/this-girl-can.

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