Inspiring girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident.
Why we care: Young women often receive unhealthy, unrealistic and limiting messages of what they should be.
How we’re solving this: Helping girls in 3rd to 8th grades learn to identify and understand their individual strengths and explore and discuss their own beliefs around the experiences and challenges they face by participating in Girls on the Run.
Girls on the Run is a 12-week program with a fun, experienced-based curriculum, which creatively integrates training for a 5K (3.1 miles) run. Physical activity is woven throughout the curriculum to inspire an appreciation of fitness and build habits that lead to a lifetime of healthy choices. At the end of the program, the girls participate in a celebratory, non-competitive 5K event. Completing in the 5K gives the girls the experience and confidence that comes through accomplishment, and serves as a framework for setting and achieving life goals. Crossing the finish line is a defining moment when the girls realize that even the seemingly impossible IS possible.
Each year, more than 120,000 girls in 3rd to 8th grade (47 states, D.C. and Canada) participate in Girls on the Run. 40% of participants require some scholarship assistance and many girls do not have and cannot afford a pair of running shoes. This funding allows us to provide running shoes to 500 girls, through grants to our councils in areas of the country where the need is greatest.
We believe that every girl can
- embrace who she is;
- define who she wants to be;
- rise to any challenge; and
- change the world.