“This Girl can” Festival Helps Local Girls Find New Ways to Be Active
Around 60 girls from local schools took part in a successful This Girl Can Festival this week, enjoying a variety of fitness and wellbeing activities designed to build confidence, encourage participation and promote healthy lifestyles.
The event was funded by Public Health and organised through a partnership between Wyre Forest School Sport Partnership, PAL Fitness and Rivers.
Students from schools including St Egwin’s and Abbey Park attended the event, which focused on providing positive experiences of physical activity for girls aged 11-13.
Importantly, the girls attending had been specifically identified by their schools as students who may not typically engage with sport. Many don’t enjoy PE lessons, experience anxiety around physical activity or feel that traditional sports simply aren’t for them.
The festival aimed to challenge those perceptions by providing a welcoming, supportive environment where participants could try a range of activities without pressure or judgement.
Throughout the day, participants rotated between four different activities:
Sound Bath with James
Zumba with Susan
Bums & Tums class with Susie
Pilates with Jodi
Each group spent 25 minutes in every session, allowing everyone to experience all four activities.
Feedback collected at the end of the event showed that the sessions were extremely well received. The Sound Bath and Zumba sessions proved particularly popular, highlighting the value of offering a variety of wellbeing and fitness opportunities to young people.
As part of the event, attendees were also encouraged to continue their activity journey through free one day passes available at Evesham and Pershore Leisure Centres, giving them the opportunity to explore more activities within their local community.
Rivers would like to thank Wyre Forest School Partnership, PAL Fitness, Public Health, the participating schools and all instructors involved for helping make the event such a success.
By working together, organisations can create meaningful opportunities that help young people build confidence, improve wellbeing and discover that being active can take many different forms.
