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What do Girl on the Run® programs offer? Girls on the Run® helps girls learn how to celebrate their unique and real selves, while growing stronger and healthier and having fun. Girls on the Run® is for girls in 3rd through 5th grade. Girls on Track® is for girls in 6th through 8th grade. Each 12-week, 24 lesson program uses interactive games, running activities, and uplifting discussions to explore issues girls face, plan and complete a community impact project, and prepare for the New Balance Girls on the Run 5K. Lessons are designed to encourage independent thinking, problem solving, and community building. Girls on the Run® encourages girls’ full emotional, social, mental, spiritual and physical development, so they learn to believe and say, "I belong just the way I am," from adolescence into adulthood. Certified volunteer coaches and running buddies provide the positive  women role models that girls need during those critical pre-teen years and beyond.
Who is Girls on the Run® for?Girls on the Run® is for all girls in 3rd-8th grades. Early adolescence is a time when girls are still receptive to what adults have to say yet are beginning to feel the pull of peer pressure. It is the perfect time to address the important issues girls face and develop skills that can be used to face challenges these issues often present. It is a time when friendships are still very important, yet romantic relationships are beginning to gain attention and interest. The curriculum emphasizes reaching for one's best, standing up for one's self, contributing to the good of the whole, and learning collaboration and life skills. Running is a tool used in Girls on the Run® to explore living outside the "Girl Box" in ways that research demonstrates works for girls - through building relationships, camaraderie, fun, and activities led by involved adults creating positive experiences. Competitiveness and seeking to "beat" others is discouraged because research confirms these approaches tend to produce anxiety for girls. Girls on the Run® is not a running or sports program in any traditional sense.
Why the name, if Girls on the Run® if not a running program?Our logo girl, Adelaide, represents the heart of Girls on the Run® - girls learning to find opportunities and use their Girls on the Run® tools to keep moving forward in life while staying connected to themselves and others, no matter what challenges they face. Some girls may run (in the program and in life), while other may choose to walk, skip, hop, jump, dance, cartwheel, or even fly their way forward. Girls on the Run® supports all of those choices for moving forward!
How is Girls on the Run® structured?Teams of 8-15 girls meet twice a week, after school for twelve weeks at different locations, usually schools. Certified volunteer Girls on the Run® coaches facilitate an evaluated curriculum used with over 60,000 girls in 150 communities in the U.S. and Canada. Each 75-minute lesson addresses an age-appropriate topic from one of three theme areas:
1) Self-Care, Self-Awareness, and Knowing Self
2) Connectedness: Choosing Healthy Relationships and Keeping Them Healthy
3) Empowerment: Celebrating and Sharing Our Strengths
Lesson topics for 3rd-5th graders include: Fueling Our Healthy Pace, Being Emotional Is Healthy, Celebrating Gratitude, Standing Up for Myself, It's Okay to Choose Our Friends, and Learning About Community.
Lesson topics for 6th-8th graders include: Understanding the Girl Box, It's All About Balance, Empowered Bodies, Conflict Resolution and Standing Up for Myself, Gossiping and Bullying - Power vs. power, and Passing the Baton- Serving As Role Models to Other Girls.
Each lesson begins with a getting-on-board and warm-up activity that brings the girls’ focus onto the day's topic. The warm-up is followed by a stretching routine that allows for topic-related question and answer time. Then, during the workout period, the girls participate in a variety of running activities to explore the topic. Cool-down stretching is then combined with participant asked and answered questions to close the lesson.
How is Girls on the Run® unique?There are no comparable programs to Girls on the Run®, according to current research by Dr. Maureen Weiss at the Tucker Institute for Women & Sport at the University of Minnesota. Girls on the Run® uses a unique curriculum in the developmentally based youth sports programming arena. It builds upon physical activity to teach specific and well-defined social and individual skills, facilitating the accrual of developmental assets, in ways that are highly effective with adolescent girls. Girls are less likely to be physically active unless involved in competitive sports, and when involved in competitive sports may be at increased risk for developing disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. Research validates that the approach used by Girls on the Run® creates a girl-positive environment that helps prevent the future display of at-risk behaviors including early onset of sexual activity, disordered eating, depression, anxiety, substance or alcohol abuse and confrontations with the juvenile justice system among adolescent girls.
Girls on the Run® is much more than the program itself. It is a philosophy. It is a way of being. It not only impacts the girls who participate in the program, but supports efforts to provide an environment for all girls and women that nurtures, develops, and celebrates their strengths.
How do girls participate in Girls on the Run®? Girls on the Run® and Girls on Track® are offered during an annual Fall season that runs from September-November at sites in Northern Arizona. Registration is hosted by each program location for one month prior to the start of each season. Girls may register to participate in a program at any location. Registration information for the upcoming Fall season will become available on the website in May.
How much does it cost to participate in Girls on the Run®? The registration fee for Girls on the Run® is $160* per girl. The fee covers a portion of the direct and indirect costs to offer the program. Direct costs include:
- Lessons conducted by two certified Girls on the Run® coaches
- Girls on the Run® practice t-shirt and water bottle
- A healthy snack, lesson handouts, and materials at each session
- Registration in the New Balance Girls on the Run 5K (includes a finisher’s t-shirt and medal)
Indirect costs include: Coach and running buddy recruitment, screening, training, and supervision; program insurance; promotional materials and website; 5K fees; and fees paid to GOTR International.
Scholarships are available for girls whose families are unable to afford the full program fee to ensure all girls can participate. The registration brochure provides information on requesting a scholarship.
What is the objective of Girls on the Run®? Our objective is to reduce the potential display of at-risk behaviors among program participants, including fewer adolescent pregnancies and eating disorders, incidences of depression and suicide attempts, alcohol or substance abuse problems, and confrontations with the juvenile justice system.
Can a girl repeat a program once she has completed a season?It is ideal for a girl to participate in Girls on the Run® or Girls on Track® each year she is eligible or as often as possible! Through repetition of the program girls develop healthy attitudes and habits that can last a lifetime, while continuing to be part of a girl-positive, supportive Girls on the Run® or Girls on Track® community of peers and coaches. As girls repeat the the program they become “peer leaders” for girls just getting involved.
Is Girls on the Run® effective?
Since 2001 Girls on the Run International has contracted with Rita DeBate, Ph.D., MPH, CHES to conduct formative impact evaluation. The Girls on the Run® evaluation assesses the program and how well it meets stated objectives. It uses a pre-test/post-test that measures attitudes towards physical activity, self-esteem, eating attitudes, body image, and communication.
Through the evaluation, Dr. DeBate has documented that Girls on the Run® improves girls’ self-esteem, body size satisfaction, and physical activity behaviors to a statistically significant extent. Also noted are positive changes regarding attitudes towards physical activity, health behaviors, and empowerment.
Click here to download evaluation results published in the Journal of School Health in 2009.
Click here to download evaluation results published in the Eating and Weight Disorders journal in 2005.
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