18
Us Girls Evaluation Report April 2011 - March 2013
Us Girls Evaluation Report
April 2011 - March 2013
1
Introduction
The Active Women Consortium (AWC) is made up of 64 organisations that aims to bring about a
dramatic impact on young women’s sports participation in the most disadvantaged areas of England.
Us Girls is the public face of the AWC, which was initially funded by Sport England and led by
StreetGames.
This ground-breaking initiative aimed to get 30,000 young women from disadvantaged areas more
active (over the 2 year period), by providing them with fitness and sport opportunities within their local
communities. The work focused on the Sport England market segment for the target market ‘Leanne’
(18-25 years) and emerging Leannes who are aged 16-18yrs.
The two year Sport England funded programme focussed on increasing and sustaining participation
and had the following targets:
- Total participants 29,700
- New coaches/leaders 700
- New volunteers 1025
- Role Models & Peer Champions 260
- New qualifications 1260
- Events/Festivals 210
- New sports clubs/groups 243.
The funding for Us Girls enabled 46 projects to deliver female only sporting activities across 60 areas
in England:
North East – 5
North West - 12
West Midlands - 7
East Midlands - 6
South West - 4
South East - 4
Yorkshire and Humberside - 3
London - 18
East - 1
Catch 22 & Clubs for Young People are two national projects that delivered activities locally across
the country. Catch 22 delivered one Us Girls project in each region whilst Clubs for Young People
delivered 7 Us Girls projects across the NW, NE, Y&H and EM.
This report outlines the success of the Us Girls programme after its initial two year funding period. It
summarises progress against the above targets, identifies the most popular sports and activities and
that have been delivered and sets out other notable achievements. It also demonstrates the impact of
the programme and outlines plans for the future of Us Girls.
2
Us Girls won the National Lottery Award for Best Sports Project 2013.
The National Lottery Awards are an annual search to find the UK's favourite Lottery-
funded projects. 49 Lottery-funded projects reached the finals of The National Lottery
Awards 2013 across seven categories: Sport; Heritage; Arts; Environment; Health;
Education; and Voluntary/Charity. Us Girls was one of seven UK sports programmes
nominated for the award this year, with a public vote determining the winner. Olympic
legend and multi-medal winning Victoria Pendleton CBE presented the award to Us
Girls at one of its projects in Manchester, as part of a ‘surprise reveal’ on 26th August
2013. Us Girls was then featured on the National Lottery Stars 2013 awards show on
BBC 1 on 11th September.
Headline Results
Headline results for the Us Girls programme for the two year funding period (April 2011 to March
2013) are set out in Table 1 below.
Table 1 – Headline Results
Key Performance Indicator Target Actual % of total target
Total number of participants 29,700 34,481 116%
Total number of coaches/leaders 700 875 125%
Total number of volunteers 1,025 694 68%
Total number of role models and peer champions 260 245 94%
Total new qualifications gained 1,260 1,232 98%
Total number of tournaments/events/festivals 210 379 180%
New sports clubs/groups/sessions created 243 779 320%
In addition to the above, 2,283 young women and girls who are involved in Us Girls projects have
joined a sports club, group or fitness gym (this is not a KPI we had to report against).
The table shows that the main target of engaging 29,700 16-25 year old females in the programme
has been achieved with almost 35,000 young women participating in the programme over the two
year period. With the exception of number of volunteers; all other targets were either exceeded or
almost met.
3
The only KPI in which the target was not met was in relation to volunteering. Engaging female
volunteers was identified as a challenge in year one – we learnt early on that the usual volunteer
recruitment model was often not appropriate for this target group. Plans were put in place to support
projects to recruit volunteers through different models that are more appropriate to this market
segment. This was made possible by securing additional funding through the Department of Health
Social Care and Volunteering Fund (more detail provided later in the report).
We believe that projects not reporting their volunteering activity accurately also contributed to us not
reaching this target. Volunteering often happens in an informal way with this target group, for example
helping to take the register, collect money, put out equipment; but this is not always recorded by
projects as it is not seen as ‘formal’ volunteering. We therefore believe that had ‘informal’ volunteering
activities been recorded that our number of volunteers figure would indeed be much higher.
Us Girls Sessions & Participants
The two year programme provided 16,111 activity sessions for females. These sessions attracted
34,481 individual participants aged 16-25 (exceeding the two year target by 16%). Of these
participants, the data shows that:
63% were 16-19
37% were 20-25
29% were from BME groups
3% had a disability
6% were classed as NEET
The proportion of participants aged 16-19 was almost two thirds of the total target. This is in line
with the target set at the planning stage which highlighted that 65% of the participants were expected
to be aged 16-19 years.
As well as engaging young women aged 16-25 in Us Girls sessions, projects also attracted females
outside of the age group – 2,669 young females under the age of 16 and 6,131 young women aged
25+ were also involved in Us Girls sessions (we only started to collect this data in year 1, quarter 4 so
the figure is likely to be much higher). Whilst projects targeted the 16-25 age groups, they made their
sessions inclusive so that nobody was turned away and so that young women within the target age
were able to bring their friends, siblings, mums and other family members. Young women want to
exercise with their friends and family members; this was found to be an important engagement and
retention tool for young women in the 16-25 age groups.
The high proportion of participants from BME groups is encouraging. A higher proportion of
females from BME groups were engaged in London based projects but also in other areas across the
country. The data reflected the demographic of the local community in which the project was being
delivered.
Type of Sports/Activities Delivered
Us Girls sessions provided a diverse range of sports and activities to meet differing local needs. Over
the two years, more than 20 different sports and activities were delivered as part of the programme.
The most popular activities (in terms of number of sessions delivered) were fitness and dance which
together formed over half of all sessions provided (52%). Figure 1 overleaf shows the number of
sessions delivered by sport over the two year period.
2
Figure 1 - Number of sessions delivered by sport
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Fitn
ess
Da
nce
Foo
tbal
l
Oth
er
Swim
min
g
Net
bal
l
Mu
lti-
Spo
rt
Ba
dm
into
n
Ba
ske
tbal
l
Bo
xin
g
Tra
mp
olin
ing
Ath
leti
cs
Ro
ller
Spo
rts
Ru
gb
y Le
agu
e
Ma
rtia
l Art
s
Vo
lleyb
all
Ro
ck C
limb
ing
Tab
le T
en
nis
Ten
nis
Ru
gb
y U
nio
n
Cyc
ling/
BM
X
Squ
ash
Ro
un
de
rs
Cri
cket
Ha
nd
bal
l
In addition to fitness and dance, other activities that were popular included football, netball, swimming,
boxing and multisport. Discussions with project managers suggest that on some occasions they
categorised activities such as zumba and ‘hoop and tone’ as ‘other’. This suggests that the number of
‘fitness’ sessions delivered may be actually higher than illustrated.
Figure 2 below shows the number of participants that attended by sport.
Figure 2 – Number of participants by sport
The sports and activities with the highest number of participants by a significant amount were dance
(28%) and fitness (27%). Multisport was also popular (and increased in popularity in the second year
of the programme) attracting around 4,500 participants whilst netball and swimming attracted 2,200
participants each, and football 2,000 participants. Badminton attracted 1,250 participants and athletics
1,200 participants over the two year period. Participants across the programme took part in a wide
3
range of activities including team sports and individual activities. Offering a range of activities was one
of the reasons that the programme was so attractive. The sports that increased in popularity more
than others over the last 6 months of the programme include cycling, trampolining, handball, athletics,
netball and multisport. It is possible to attribute some of this increase in interest to the London 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games. Boxing had already seen in increase from the start of year 2.
A summary table of data for the two year funding period, by sport, is provided in Appendix A.
National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and Us Girls
As a national partner of Sport England, StreetGames supports NGBs to help them grow and sustain
their sport within disadvantaged areas. The Us Girls National Team led on the support with England
Netball; Exercise, Movement & Dance Partnership (EMDP); Rounders England; British Gymnastics
and England Handball. Discussions have also taken place with other NGBs; sharing the insight from
the Us Girls programme on engaging and retaining young women from disadvantaged areas in their
sport.
Some examples of our work with NGBs includes:
Working closely with England Handball to support the development of their recently
launched Girls4Gold leadership course. We have also delivered the Engaging Woman &
Girls 3 hour interactive workshop (that we have developed) to their National Development
staff.
Our Engaging Woman & Girls workshop has been delivered to over 150 FA regional and county
football development staff. The FA also supported two Us Girls Rocks festivals with their
Women’s Super League Football Roadshow.
Rounders England invested funding in 9 Us Girls projects to test how rounders is best delivered
in an Us Girls setting to females in disadvantaged areas. An evaluation of this pilot project was
conducted and results presented to NGB staff. This has has helped Rounders England to inform
their future planning.
We worked closely with the LTA to pilot their Cardio Tennis programme through the provision of
two training courses specifically for Us Girls projects.
Short research papers have been produced on badminton, football, netball and swimming
exploring ‘what works’ and what doesn’t work in engaging young women from disadvantaged
areas in these sports.
England Netball, England Basketball, British Cycling, EMDP, ECB and the FA all supported
the annual Us Girls Conferences by delivering an NGB update session.
Good relationships have been developed between Us Girls and British Cycling’s Breeze
programme.
England Basketball has produced an Us Girls tailored resource for Ball Again. Several Us Girls
projects have signed up to receive the Ball Again resources as a result of this.
The Us Girls national team have always been on hand to support NGBs to engage and retain young
women from disadvantaged areas in their sport. This has included sharing insight, product
development support and piloting new products, programmes and training.
Types of facilities used
Us Girls sessions were delivered in a variety of local community venues including both traditional and
non-traditional sports facilities. Throughout the emphasis was on using local provision in order to
engage local people. As Figure 3 below shows, the most popular types of facility used for sessions
4
were indoor facilities (e.g. school/college gym, dance studio, private building), local authority indoor
sports centres, community halls and community indoor sports centres. Only 14% of sessions took
place in outdoor venues.
Figure 3 – Types of facilities used
The chart shows that indoor facilities were by far the most popular in which to run Us Girls sessions.
This supports research and feedback from participants which suggests that females from this age
group and demographic prefer to be active indoors. This pattern has been similar since the start of the
programme and we have seen little seasonal variation which suggests that females would prefer to
participate indoors whatever the weather.
Coaches/Leaders, Volunteers and Qualifications
In total, 875 new coaches/leaders have been used to deliver the Us Girls sessions of which 30%
were female. In addition, 694 new volunteers have been used to deliver sessions, of which 54%
were female and 245 have played the part of community champion or local role models.
Of particular note in relation to infrastructure development, a significant proportion of Us Girls female
coaches and volunteers were aged 16-25 years (32% of coaches and 66% of volunteers).
Developing participants, coaches and volunteers and helping them to gain relevant qualifications was
a key aim of the programme in order to make it sustainable. A total of 1,232 new qualifications have
been achieved. The new qualifications include NGB coaching qualifications, sports leader awards and
general qualifications such as Emergency First Aid, Safeguarding and Protecting Children and Youth
Work. Other qualifications that have also been completed include event volunteering, introduction to
disability sport, exercise to music, fitness instructor, zumba instructor, bikability and working with
challenging behaviour.
Figure 4 overleaf shows the number of new qualifications achieved.
5
Figure 4 – New Qualifications Achieved
In year two we developed and rolled out an ‘Engaging Women & Girls’ 3 hour interactive workshop
building on the learning and research gained from the Us Girls programme. This has been delivered
to a range of learners including Us Girls project deliverers, NGB staff, college sport students and a
range of other sports organisations that are working with (or want to engage) women and girls. This
workshop is now part of the StreetGames Training Academy. Feedback so far has been excellent and
demand for this training is high across the network. The resource that accompanies this workshop
includes 15 Us Girls ‘How To’ guides.
Events and festivals
Events and festivals are a very important part of StreetGames and are an important part of delivering
successful Us Girls projects. 379 local events, festivals and tournaments were held during the two
year funding period.
Us Girls Rocks
In October 2012 we delivered four female only mass participation
festivals branded as ‘Us Girls Rocks’. These took place in the NW, NE,
Midlands and London. In total these attracted over 500 female
participants. The Us Girls Rocks festivals provided an opportunity for young women and girls to try
lots of different sports in a fun and friendly environment. These festivals were offered to the wider
StreetGames network and participants attended from colleges and other women and girls projects as
well as individuals who turned up on the day.
Events were delivered by projects in the Us Girls network and supported by the national team. There
was also a significant amount of NGB involvement with a number of
them delivering their sport on the day. This included the FA WSL
Football Roadshow which supported the festivals in the NW and NE.
The events were a great success and were delivered through a
programme of taster activities. As a reward for trying out different
sports there were free hair and beauty treatments on offer such as
manicures, massages and hair curling and straightening and all
participants were given a free Us Girls t-shirt and the opportunity to win
goodie bags and other prizes!
“The Us Girls Rocks events were
great and gave us access to young
females that we would not
normally get access to” Polly
Fildes, FA Women's Football
National Project Officer
6
The Us Girls Rocks Festivals were used as a way of getting more females involved in sport and
delivering the ambition to Inspire a Generation. Female sporting role models supported each of the
events. The athletes got involved with the activities with the girls, took questions, chatted to the girls
and posed for photographs.
Images from Us Girls Rocks Festivals
In addition to the 4 regional festivals, 15 ‘mini’ Us Girls Rocks events were delivered by local projects
to coincide with International Women’s Day on 8th March 2013. These mirrored the format of the
regional festivals and were a resounding success. Four more regional Us Girls Rocks festivals are
being held in the summer/autumn of 2013.
Sports clubs & coaching sessions
In order to help sustain participation in activity, projects:
- Encouraged and supported women to join sports clubs/groups/gyms – 779
- Created new sports clubs/groups/sessions – 2,283.
The new clubs/groups that have been created have been in a range of sports. Of the females joining
sports clubs/groups, the most popular has been in dance and in fitness (by way of women joining
gyms). Other popular activities in which young women have gone on to join clubs/groups include
football, netball and athletics. A smaller number of women have gone on to join clubs/groups in other
sports.
Links and Partnerships
The AWC is made up of a range of national partners, NGBs and local projects. Local projects
received support from a wide range of NGBs and other national partners including SkillsActive,
Muslim Women Sport Foundation, Sporting Equals, Laureus, Catch 22, Sports Leaders UK, Brunel
University, Positive Futures, Football League Trust, Women’s Sport & Fitness Foundation (WSFF),
English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) and DKHLT. The relationship between national partners
and local projects was in many cases facilitated through the Us Girls national team.
We have seen a significant increase in support from NGBs to projects at a local level in year two of
the programme. In particular the NGBs for netball, football, rounders and badminton have provided
“I loved it; it gave me the opportunity to try lots of different sports” Us Girls participant
“I liked it because I was around girls and I felt comfortable” Us Girls participant
7
valuable support to help with project delivery locally. This is in the form of providing access to
coaches and links to their participation programmes such as Back2Netball, Just Play, No Strings
Badminton often coordinating Us Girls projects and Sportivate projects where the focus was women
and girls.
At a local level projects worked with a wide range of partners including engaging in partnerships with:
Local charities
Schools, Colleges & Children’s Centres
Local authorities
Leisure Trusts
Police
PCTs
Community Interest Companies
Housing Associations
Local clubs and other local community projects.
In order to help raise the profile of women’s sport across the UK we are developing close working
relationships with organisations such as Women’s Sport Trust and WSNET and as well as relevant
media and trade press such as SportSister, The Guardian, The Telegraph and magazines such as
Womens Health and Glamour.
Summary of progress against KPIs
The two year funding period for the Us Girls programme has seen over 16,000 sessions delivered and
over 34,000 participants engaged across 46 projects. The monitoring data highlights the strength of
Us Girls projects in attracting participants from the 16-19 year old age range with this age group
accounting for two thirds of participants to date. Participation by women and girls from BME
communities is also high accounting for 29% of participants.
The data also highlights the range of different activities on offer but clearly shows the popularity of
dance (various forms) and fitness activities amongst the young women. This has been a trend which
has remained relatively constant since the start of the programme although a wider range of sports
became popular in the latter twelve months including boxing, netball, trampolining, athletics, handball
and cycling and with many projects focusing on providing a multi-sport offer.
Us Girls projects worked hard to ensure that participation is retained and that the network of coaches
and volunteers is strengthened - 779 new sports clubs/informal groups have been created and 2,283
participants have gone on to join sports clubs/groups. In terms of the workforce, 875 coaches have
been used to deliver Us Girls projects of which 30% are female, and 694 volunteers have been used
of which 54% are female. In addition 1,232 qualifications have been gained.
The Olympic Effect
As mentioned previously, certain sports appeared to gain popularity in the latter six months of the
programme (Oct 2012-March 2013). These included cycling, trampolining, athletics and multisport.
The table below shows Us Girls participation data in the same 6 months pre and post the 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Games:
8
Oct 2011-March 2012 Oct 2012 – March 2013
No. of Us Girls Sessions 4,511 5,178
No. of Us Girls Participants 9,230 11,783
No of Girls only sports festivals
(local)
105 162
No of participants at festivals
(local)
2,881 3,573
No of Girls only sports festivals
(regional)
0 4
This increase in activity in the same 6 months pre and post Games could be a result of the inspiration
created by the Games in the summer of 2012.
Other achievements In addition to achieving the programme targets, there are many other successes and examples of
good practice that have been achieved during the two years of the programme.
Processes and support for projects
A user friendly, online monitoring and evaluation system was set up for projects to input their
data on a quarterly basis
Production of a marketing toolkit for projects to use which includes poster templates, leaflet
templates, good practice examples etc
Establishment and distribution of Us Girls merchandise such as t-shirts, hoodies, water
bottles, key-rings etc for projects to purchase and use as rewards and incentives
Development of www.usgirls.org.uk which provides project managers, coordinators and
deliverers access to news stories, branding guidelines, marketing support material, case
studies, sport specific information, project information and research information
A national steering group has been set up to advise on the direction of the AWC
Doorstep sport advisory groups have been set up in dance, social media, swimming and sport
citizenship to help share learning across the Consortium
Quarterly regional meetings have been held to bring projects together and share learning and
future plans
Individual project visits have been undertaken by the Us Girls National Team to provide one
to one support and guidance
Two successful Us Girls Conferences have taken place, each attracting more than 100
delegates
The Us Girls Games allowed projects the opportunity to compete virtually with each other
which helped to further solidify the ‘network’.
PR and Marketing
In addition to the above, the Us Girls national team with wider StreetGames support has been working
to raise the profile of the programme both national and locally. The following progress has been
made:
Our @UsGirlsTweet Twitter account has 2652 and the Us Girls Facebook page has 450
‘likes’ so far
Us Girls has two political ambassadors in place – Barbara Keeley MP and Tracey Crouch MP.
9
Us Girls has a number of sporting ambassadors in place including Olympic Boxing Champion
Nicola Adams (Us Girls President) and British number one female tennis player Elena
Baltacha amongst others
Us Girls has organised two events at the Houses of Parliament which have received national
newspaper coverage.
The Us Girls team were part of the steering group to plan the WSFF Fit4Women events in
2011 and 2012, we facilitated workshops at these events, presented case studies and sat on
an expert panel.
Us Girls has won a National Lottery Award for Best Sport Project 2013.
Research and Insight - Practical Application
The research and insight we have gathered through programme has now been collated to produce a
series of ‘How to’ guides – there are 15 of these at present and we hope to add to this in the future.
The ‘How To’ Guides include practical top tips and case studies in relation to the engagement and
delivery of women and girls activity. The guides are accessible free of charge to members of the
network. The guides are also provided as a resource to the Engaging Women & Girls Workshop.
A guide on ‘How to Boost Body Image through Exercise’ has recently been added to the series. This
was written and researched in association with the Centre for Research Appearance at the University
of West of England and with the Us Girls project in Bristol.
Engaging Women & Girls Workshop
We have developed a 3 hour Engaging Women and Girls interactive workshop, the content of which
has been derived from the above guides. This workshop now forms part of the StreetGames Training
Academy and is available to anyone who has an active interest in engaging women and girls in
doorstep sport. To date we have delivered the workshop to project delivery staff, college sports
students (the future coaches and leaders) and NGB development staff and have had significant
interest from the StreetGames and wider network to access this training. This workshop is currently
being delivered by the Us Girls National Team but project staff within the Us Girls network are being
trained to deliver this workshop.
“One of the best coach ed days ive
been on” Coaching & Leadership Development
Officer, England Handball
10
Interest from outside the Us Girls network
There has been significant interest in the Us Girls programme from individuals and organisations
outside of the AWC. We have been approached by other local projects and organisations that are
also delivering activities to this target group (or would like to) to find out how they can get involved. In
the main, this has not been to source funding but to:
a. Be part of something bigger
b. To learn from the programme.
The network has doubled in since inception of the programme and continues to grow with over 100
organisations now involved in the programme.
Girls Time To Make it Happen Campaign
In the summer of 2012 we launched a campaign designed to develop more opportunities for young
women to take part in sport through Us Girls on the back of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Several organisations that were new to the Us Girls network pledged their support for the campaign
which was also backed by a number of female athletes and Olympians from Team GB. The official
launch was held at the Hilton Hotel Wembley prior to the women’s Olympic football final match and
included attendance by England Netball player Sasha Corbin, Team GB Judo Sophie Cox, Alex Scott
and Kelly Smith (footballers), plus a number of Us Girls projects – participants and project
coordinators. As part of the Campaign, on the 3rd August
StreetGames dedicated its Olympic 2012 Voices to female sport
promoting the Campaign.
Read all about the campaign here
Other activity that took place linked to the Olympic Games
included the Us Girls Olympic Sweepstake. Us Girls participants
from several projects were also given the opportunity to attend
Olympic events through the wider StreetGames Give and Go initiative.
Us Girls Champions and Us Girls President
In 2012, Nicola Adams signed up to be the Us Girls President. Nicola has championed the
programme, visited projects and assisted with raising the profile of Us Girls.
As part of the #GirlsTimeToMakeItHappen campaign and during the course of Us Girls, we have
contacted and built a relationship with a number of other sports and fitness professionals.
We have a number of elite athletes that back Us Girls and have put their name to the brand to show
support. Our Champions have provided varying support to the programme including linking to us on
Twitter and Facebook, visiting Us Girls projects in their local area, appearances at Us Girls Rocks
“Us Girls has shown with its dedication to community
sport what can be achieved on behalf of the young
women who live in deprived neighbourhoods across
the UK. They’ve demonstrated an extraordinary
commitment to the future and I’m really pleased to
be part of that commitment too” Nicola Adams MBE,
Us Girls President & Olympic Boxing Champion.
11
Festivals and events, raising awareness of the programme and generally championing our cause
amongst their network of contacts. A full list of Champions can be found on our website.
Independent programme evaluation
Our relationship with Brunel University as our research partner has grown from strength to strength.
Brunel has produced two independent reports on ‘the participants experience’ and ‘the project
managers experience’ which has involved talking directly to young women and project managers and
coaches involved in a number of Us Girls projects.
IFF the company evaluating the Active Women Programme on behalf of Sport England has also
produced a report which looks at the successes and lessons learned from the Us Girls programme.
Both reports can be accessed via www.usgirls.org.uk.
Securing additional funding - Us Girls Alive
We have been successful in securing funding of £400,000 from the Department of
Health to develop a new strand of the existing Us Girls programme. The ‘Us Girls
Alive’ initiative is designed to improve the well-being of young women living in 15
selected areas of health need in England.
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.
Gear4Girls
Gear4Girls is a new initiative which aims to raise money to supply sports equipment and
clothing to young women and girls from disadvantage communities, people who want to
get active but don’t have any gear! As well as raising funds, a host of NGBs are
donating equipment to the initiative which can then be distributed to where it’s needed.
Us Girls launched its Gear4Girls Campaign on International Women’s Day, headed up
by our president Nicola Adams.
Demonstrating programme impact
In addition to the independent evaluation undertaken by Brunel University and IFF, we undertook our
own survey of project managers and participants that have been involved in the Us Girls programme.
The key findings from the project manager survey highlighted that:
Only 8% of the Project Managers said that they would have had a dedicated women and girls
programme during 2011-13 had they not received Lottery funding for Us Girls
96% or project managers said that they have a better understanding of how to mobilise this
target group in sport
92% said that Us Girls activities have been sustained beyond the funding period
The Us Girls branding proved to be very popular, with 36% of Project Managers stating that
they ‘loved it’ and 56% stating that they ‘liked it’
Project managers found the access to a range of resources and support very useful/useful
including advice and support from the Us Girls team, email updates and newsletters, access
12
to the Us Girls brand, research and insight into female participation, quarterly network
meetings and The National Us Girls Conferences
There was overwhelming agreement that direct engagement methods were the most effective
including taster sessions working with relevant existing groups, social media and direct
mail/emails to partner organisations or 16-25 year old females on pre-existing databases
The key factors identified by Project Managers which helped to make their Us Girls sessions
successful include working in partnership, regular consultation with participants, allowing time
to build relationships with the target group, ensuring that sessions were provided at
accessible/local facilities, low cost/affordable sessional charges and the provision of
incentives/rewards.
Some of the key lessons learned include:
o The importance of an informal approach to sessions
o The need for targeted engagement and marketing – word of mouth is extremely
important!
o The value of a varied offer – including a range of different sports/fitness activities
o Be brave and offer different sports/activities – don’t just assume certain activities will
be popular or un-popular.
o The value of peer champions or local activators from the relevant target group and
the importance of the right coach or leader
o The importance of gathering regular feedback from participants/consultation.
Us Girls Participants were also surveyed at the end of the programme. From a survey of 150 young
women, the key findings highlighted that:
A large proportion (39%) of girls who were not doing any sport or fitness before joining the Us
Girls programme
The Us Girls sessions have encouraged many (68%) to try new sports and fitness activities
42% have taken up another sport/activity outside of the Us Girls sessions
Over two-thirds have made positive changes to their lifestyle/health
“The project has improved the lives of some of the females who attended as they would never have taken part in sport or physical activity when they were mixed groups, the sessions have allowed the groups to build up a positive and vibrant community and have built on friendships that may not have existed. Some of the females now access regular sessions with local sports clubs and play in an organised structure, it has also trained various females in NGB qualifications allowing the products to be delivered at a local level by qualified female coaches” Us Girls Project Manager
“Sessions were easily accessible to local people due to venue location,
timings of the sessions and the price was kept to a minimum. The
groups responded to good coaching staff and were incentivised by t-
shirts and branded prizes.” Us Girls Project Manager
13
90% of respondents said that they have learnt new skills, feel fitter, have made new friends
and feel more positive about doing sport/fitness
Over a third have helped out or volunteered at their Us Girls session
Nearly a quarter have enquired or signed up to a leadership or coaching course
The main reasons that encouraged the young females to attend Us Girls sessions were
knowing someone that attended or it being recommended it (38%), the provision of female
only sessions (33%), sessions at a convenient location (29%) and at a convenient time (28%)
and an affordable price (28%)
Opinions about the Us Girls sessions were extremely positive with participants strongly
agreeing/agreeing that the staff were friendly and welcoming (99%), the activities are fun and
informal (98%), that they feel comfortable in the place where sessions are held (94%).
39% of respondents said that they probably wouldn’t have done any sport/activities if the Us
Girls programme hadn’t existed and 41% said they would have done some sport/activity but
less often
Nearly all of the respondents (95%) think that they will be either very likely or fairly likely to
continue with the same level of sport/exercise in the future.
Us Girls Tools & Resources
We have produced a number of tools and resources aimed to help projects and partners to increase
and retain young women in sport. These include:
A series of 15 practical ‘How To’ Guides to help project managers, coaches and deliverers to
increase and sustain young women’s sport participation
An interactive 3 hour Workshop - Engaging Women and Girls in Sport & Physical Activity
workshop aimed at community sport project leaders, coaches, volunteers, NGB development
staff, colleges and students.
Body Image Information pack and consultation ‘quizzes’ to understand individual participant
motivations
Marketing Toolkit
Case studies & good practice examples
Gender specific research and insight
Us Girls merchandise for use as rewards and incentives
Us Girls in Colleges Toolkit.
“I like the sessions
because it is fun - we can
play our own music and
the workout is just girls”
Us Girls Participant
“There are a wide range of
sporting activities that I enjoy
taking part in and it opens my
mind about different sporting
activities“ Us Girls Participant
“It’s comfortable and
friendly, cheap, the
leaders are nice and
helpful and it’s in a non-
intimidating atmosphere”
Us Girls Participant
14
The future of Us Girls
Our Us Girls programme is a major contribution to achieving equity in Doorstep Sport and provides
high class insight into the best methods to engage young women and girls in sport and fitness. For
doorstep sport to grow we know that a range of different services and support is required and there is
clear demand for the Us Girls programme to continue. We are therefore assimilating Us Girls into the
mainstream delivery of our core business post March 2013 and will continue to use the Us Girls brand
to engage young women and girls in sport & physical activity. Over the next four years, we will:
Ensure StreetGames Doorstep Sport Clubs fully consider the needs of young women in the
planning of Doorstep Sport Club programmes
Embed the learning of the Us Girls programme, continue the roll out of the engaging women
and girls workshop and continue to gather and share insight
Support FE colleges in disadvantaged areas to establish a girls only programme using the
insight from Us Girls
Develop a series of Girls only events and festivals to provide engagement and retention
opportunities for young women
Establish a partnership with UKActive and SPORTA in order to develop girls only provision in
facility provider network
Provide leadership and profile about the importance of sports provision for girls, support
campaigns and develop and grow a network member benefit programme
Improve the well-being of young women living in 15 selected areas of health need in England
& support young female volunteers to assist in the development of wellbeing (Us Girls Alive)
clubs and seek to gain support to grow this programme into other areas
Deliver girls only ‘pop up’ clubs.
For more information about the Us Girls programme visit www.usgirls.org.uk or contact
15
Appendix 1 Us Girls Information by Sport
No of projects
delivered No of sessions delivered No of participants Tournaments/events
Fitness 51 5273 11699 46
Football 20 1064 2008 46
Dance 36 3043 11858 72
Other 8 325 975 35
Swimming 13 759 2200 1
Badminton 13 495 1257 12
Basketball 11 430 695 17
Netball 19 826 2191 26
Rugby League 3 96 290 3
Boxing 11 571 796 9
Rock Climbing 4 66 193 1
Trampolining 9 302 704 3
Multi-sport 21 1516 4694 88
Athletics 11 254 1177 24
Cycling/BMX 4 172 667 25
Rounders 5 86 250 3
Roller sports 5 152 506 3
Martial arts 7 96 182 7
Tennis 6 45 96 4
Table tennis 6 77 148 3
Volleyball 4 92 100 1
Rugby Union 5 165 251 0
Squash 3 80 39 0
Cricket 1 19 21 1
Handball 3 57 66 4
