Active Girls is a sportscotland initiative, driven through Active Schools, aiming to deliver increased opportunities for girls and young women to participate in sport, improve leadership opportunities and allow greater recognition of the power of girls to motivate and inspire their peers.
Young sporting leaders like Rebekah Singer from Aberdeen, alongside Active Schools coordinator, Sarah Fraser, have been working extremely hard and have made great progress in local schools and communities to encourage commitment from schools, demonstrating the connections between education and physical activity. We caught up with Rebecca to hear more about her journey in Active Girls and the work that she has been involved in so far.
Active Girls
I got involved in Active Girls after planning and leading Active Girls Day activities in my school as a Young Ambassador. The committee was just being set up and my Active Schools Coordinator asked me to attend the first meeting. I have been a member of the committee since it started in 2016, first as a representative from my secondary school and now as co-chair, supporting the current school reps.
Fit for Girls
During lockdown the Active Girls committee took part in a virtual Fit For Girls workshop. This was really beneficial to the development of our committee members as leaders and provided us all with tools and ideas to take back into our schools to help us continue to break down barriers for young girls across Aberdeen. When one of our Active Schools coordinators sent through the application form for the Fit For Girls tutor role I decided to apply, seeing first-hand the impact that the programme can make for young girls in leadership roles and wanting to continue to expand on my experience working in women and girls sport.
Important Programmes
Programmes like Fit For Girls are so important for creating a conversation around women and girls sport and a fantastic way for girls to be involved in the process to make sport more accessible and appealing to young women.
The Fit For Girls programme encourages the girls attending the workshops to use their voice and work with other girls in their schools to create solutions and help more girls get active."
The workshops are delivered by young people, so the programme also gives us as tutors the opportunity to develop key life skills as well as the girls attending the workshop. Having young tutors delivering the workshops makes a huge difference for the girls. It makes it easier for the girls to connect to the tutors and they engage well and give open and honest contributions during the workshops, giving them the best opportunity to take as much as they can from the sessions and go back to their schools inspired and motivate.
Sharing Experiences
We had the opportunity to attend the All Party Parliamentary Group for Sport’s International Women’s Day Event, which was an incredible opportunity for the tutor team. Myself, Grace, Emma and Nicola were given the opportunity to speak at the event and share our experiences as tutors and the barriers we have faced in sport. Several other speakers attended the event and each had their own inspiring stories to share with the room. It was amazing to see so many people gathered with a shared passion and drive to make a difference for women’s and girls in sport across the UK, and it would be great if young people and policy makers could continue to come together in the future to share experiences and create change.
Active Schools
The Active Girls committee and the Fit for Girls tutors are hugely supported by the Active Schools programmes and the coordinators. Sarah Fraser is one of the Active Schools co-coordinators who has been working closely on these projects and has been seen some strong commitment from schools and their engagement on providing more opportunities for girls in sport. Sarah said,
“Fit for Girls is a fantastic training opportunity and the Active Girls Committee in Aberdeen have taken this on so we can build upon the positive work to break down barriers and increase female participation levels in Aberdeen.”
