Over a period of 10 weeks groups of 8-15 girls meet with volunteer coaches after school twice each week for fun workouts combined with life lessons. We strive to develop stronger, more confdent girls who truly love and believe in themselves resuting in fewer adolescent pregnancies and eating disorders, less depression and suicide attempts, as well as fewer substance abuse/alcohol abuse problems.

Curriculum Structure

The curriculum encompasses the following three concepts:

Weeks 1-4; All About Me...Getting to Know Who I am and What I Stand For!

Weeks 5 - 7; Building My Team...Understanding the Importance of Cooperation

Weeks 8 - 10: Community Begins with Me...Learning About Community and Designing Our own Community Project

Girls on the Run programs are based on activities with specific functions to enhance the learning process.

Each meeting is structured as follows:

• The session begins with a getting-on-board and a 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 a topic-related question and answer time.
• Then, during the workout period, the girls participate in a variety of running activities that utilize a game or a team goal.
• Afterwards, cool-down stretching is then combined with participant asked and answered questions.
• Each session closes with positive words from the girls' coach regarding individual and group behaviors

Academic Evaluation

Girls on the Run promotes physical as well as emotional, mental and character development. The girls complete the program with a stronger sense of identity, a greater acceptance of themselves, a healthier body image and an understanding of what it means to be part of a team. The participants are tested before beginning and after completion of the program to measure these attitudinal changes. This evaluation, executed by Rita DeBate, Ph.D., MPH, CHES with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, showed statistically significant improvements in the girls self-esteem, body size satisfaction, and eating attitudes/behaviors.

In 2001, Girls on the Run International contracted with Rita DiGioacchino DeBate, Ph.D., MPH, CHES, to perform a formative impact evaluation. She performed the evaluation in 2002 and 2005. The evaluation assesses the Girls on the Run program and how well it meets stated objectives by using a pre-test/post-test that measures attitudes towards physical activity, self-esteem, eating attitudes, body image and communication. Dr. DeBate is an Associate Professor in the School of Community and Environmental Health at Old Dominion University.

Prior to running our pilot, Dr. DeBate's review of the academic research in the area of girls and sports turned up two contradictory results.  On the one hand, girls involved in athletics have higher self-esteem and engage in fewer risky behaviors than girls who are not.  On the other hand, girls who become highly competitive in some sports (such as running, figure skating, gymnastics and other sports in which slim body images are admired) have a higher incidence of eating disorders than girls who are not involved in such sports. This poses a dilemma which – after running our evaluation - Dr. DeBate believes the Girls on the Run curricula may solve.

Through the evaluations, Dr. DeBate found that our curricula improve 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.

Sample Lesson

We have provided a sample lesson so that you can get a feel for the structure of the program sessions. Please click here to view the lesson.