Us Girls Wales Bulletin September 2015 Issue 1 Welcome! Welcome to our very first. Since the exciting launch of Us Girls in Wales, the programme, network and campaign is continuing to grow. There are lots of great things happening nationally to get more girls and young women engaged in sport and physical activity, so this will be a great place to update on what s going on nationally, share info and celebrate success! The next bulletin will be out at the end of November, so please let the Business Support Team (wales@streetgames.org) know if there is anything that your project or organisation would like to contribute. Thank you! StreetGames will be going along to raise awareness of the Us Girls Programme in Wales at Full Circle s first conference to celebrate International Day of the Girl, bringing together educators, youth workers, health professionals, counsellors and anyone with an interest in understanding the issues affecting twenty-first century girls. We will be out and about meeting with projects and partners that week, and it would be great for you to be a part of our social media campaign to celebrate some of the great stuff that you are doing. Remember to tag in @UsGirlsTweet and #UsGirlsWales #WeekOfTheGirl New Projects 3 new projects have joined the Us Girls Programme, a very special welcome to the Cardiff BME, Torfaen and Lower Cynon Us Girls Projects. Torfaen aim to focus on offering those girls which have opted out of educational physical education, a range of different activities that they may not have experienced in a personal or schools settings, thus finding a hook in to physical activity. Lower Cynon are keen to work closely with local partners to engage with girls using youth drop-ins, as they have identified that a number of girls using these facilities are currently inactive. Rajma Begum, who is leading on engagement with girls and young women from black and minority ethnic backgrounds in Cardiff, has previously carried out a number of consultation groups in the area, and is making some really useful links with organisations such as Oasis who support refugees and asylum seekers. She recently attended a Women s Health Day Event hosted by Oasis, where she had the opportunity to meet with girls, young women and organisations to raise awareness of the programme. Us Girls Rocked! Jess, Lou and Rach took a well enjoyed trip to Rhyl, North Wales to celebrate and support Us Girls Rocks Conwy. The event took place in Kimnel Bay on the 19 September 2015, and had a great variety of activities on offer, such as Boogie Bounce, Box Fit, Cycling Obstacle Course, Bollywood Dancing and lots more. The girls and young women that attended the event got stuck in with the activities and it was great to hear comments like I ve never even kicked a ball, but I am actually quite good and I ve just had a go on the boxing pads, and I loved it! The trip was also a really good opportunity to link in with network members such as the WRU, Welsh Cycling and Youth Services who all helped to make the day a success! Such events are key to introducing girls and young women to new and exciting activities, in a fun and innovative way. Following the event, an Us Girls Cycling Club is kicking off on the 8th October! Special thanks to Sarah Roberts (Conwy UG), Gemma Davies (C1st) and Kevin Roberts (Boys & Girls Clubs Wales) who organised the event and gave us a great welcome up North
Welcome to the network
Partnership Opportunity: Breeze in Schools Welsh Cycling was successful in receiving funding from Sport Wales to get more women AND girls cycling in Wales over the next 3 years (2015-2018). Therefore, we would like to introduce the Breeze concept to teenage girls through schools and other organisations such as GirlGuiding and StreetGames. We would like to train teachers and other adult leaders to become Breeze Champions and run bike rides in an all-female environment to girls. Why? Cycling is a fantastic way to get fit, it can be purely recreational or highly competitive, it can be done alone or in a group, and the youngest to the oldest can take part. We want girls who perhaps traditional sport does not appeal, to experience an activity that they can, and want, to take part in. We want girls who love sport to have the opportunity to try a new sport (and one that Britain and Wales - is really successful at on the world stage!) and get to know about really good female sporting role models such as Laura Trott, Becky James and Rachel Atherton. We want girls to get fit doing something fun (that gets them places too). How would this work for us? Any adult helper/leader can attend a FREE one day Ride Leadership training course run by British Cycling. Providing they have a First Aid qualification they can then lead rides for their school or organisation. They would lead a ride under their school s/organisation insurance and policies. Once you start leading rides you will be provided with free cycling kit and free British Cycling membership and have access to further CPD opportunities and on-going support. You can run them as taster sessions, part of a series or as part of a campaign/promotion such as Bike Week. Length/difficultly of the rides are not important, we just want girls to have the opportunity to ride together! However, a series of progressive rides would allow the girls to see how quickly they can improve their fitness and enjoyment on a bike. What s the next step? Contact your local Women and Girls Cycling Officer at Welsh Cycling Cat Crimmins South Wales cat.crimmins@welshcycling.co.uk 01633 274691 07976 514519 Gaynor Davis North Wales Gaynor.davis@welshcycling.co.uk 07710 022670 Fundraising Santander show support for Us Girls Caerphilly s Communities First Team arranged a 5km sponsored walk in aid of the Us Girls campaign. The walk was kindly sponsored by Santander UK who collected money in their Caerphilly branch. During the week leading up to the event they held a bake sale within the store and also agreed to match fund the near 1000 raised throughout the event. This is hopefully the first of many Us Girls events that will be run in partnership with Santander. The 5km walk took place on Saturday 12 September with 23 girls who are all currently engaged in our Us Girls hubs throughout Caerphilly completing the walk. Stephen Thompson, Branch Manager for Santander UK said: We are very proud to be involved with both US Girls and Communities First. Knowing that money we raise really makes a difference in the local area is something that really motivates us, and it is something that all our customers have bought into. Our US Girls awareness day raised 107 through our cake sale, a figure which Santander will match in further donations. Two staff members also took part in the 5k walk on Saturday, further raising money and awareness for such a fantastic cause. We look forward to working even closer together in the future. Cllr Ken James, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning & Sustainable Development said It is great to see the Us Girls campaign doing so well since its introduction to Wales in May. Getting girls involved in sport is an important task especially in areas where the numbers fall short of the average. Well done to all involved at Communities First, Santander and Creazione who arranged and supported the event and congratulations to all that completed the 5k!
Snapshot of the month Neath Port Talbot Us Girls Sessions changing spaces into more inviting vibrant areas amazing what you can do with 200 lighting. By doing this they have developed a night club feel, really inviting and have been successful in getting young women aged 13 plus who don t usually do sport/physical activity involved. They have also ensured that it s at the right price, central in the estates so they can get there easily and delivered in a fun fresh style..
Shout out to... Us Girls volunteers in Caerphilly the Big Sisters who helped run a number of Us Girls Hubs in the area. A big thank you to the girls for helping to make our recent Multi Sports Festival in Cardiff a big success. A special thank you to full-time volunteer Lucy Thomas for organising a Big Sister Sleepover at Dare Valley Park where the girls enjoyed team building activities, pampering, laser tag and learning about becoming a volunteer. Us Girls Newport have also set up the Gossip Girls team, who have recently met to discuss exciting plans for Us Girls clubs and activities. Watch this space! Pictured below in their new kits! 2nd Gossip Girl night For Newport Us Girls Volunteers: Every quarter we hold a gossip night for our female volunteers/coaches on the programme to attend and share good news stories and come up with new ideas for the us girls clubs/programme. At the first gossip night the volunteers banded themselves as Gossip Girls and designed their own hoodies. 17 Gossip girls attended the 2nd Gossip night where they received their hoodies and received and hair and beauty treatments as a thank you to the hard work they have put in with the programme so far. The gossip girls volunteer and work on 7 Us Girls clubs every week (4 community 1st clubs and 3 school clubs) and have engaged with over 180 girls since July. Within the gossip night the girls discuss what is working well in each club and share good practice and suggest ideas that the participants have said they want to try. For example the participants have suggested hula hooping aerobics sessions which the gossips girls fed back, within a space of a week each club has received pink weighted hula hoops and the coaches provided with lesson plans. Off the back of the Gossip night we are now looking to purchase age relevant rewards for the participants as part of the Newport Us Girls reward scheme and 16+ female gym sessions in the community gyms. #wecanplay Us Girls Football club: We have linked in with Newport County and the Welsh football trust to deliver an Us Girls Football club starting on the 5th October to link in with the FA s girls football week. The sessions are running in Newport Centre 5.30-6.30pm for 12+ year olds. A Newport county coach will deliver the session alongside a Gossip Girl coach who will be pushing the Us Girls brand and rewards.